Gerard McManus (born 28 June 1960) is an Australian journalist, magazine columnist, and media consultant.

Education

McManus was educated at the University of New England and his newspaper cadetship was with the Centralian Advocate in

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

Career

He has worked as business editor of the Sunday Herald Sun, political editor of the Sunday Herald Sun, and political correspondent for the

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery. He left the Press Gallery in 2009.

''R v McManus and Harvey''

In June 2007, in '' R v McManus and Harvey'', McManus and fellow

journalist Michael Harvey were convicted of

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

for refusing to disclose a source used in a story they wrote on entitlements for war veterans and widows. The ensuing controversy resulted in pressure on both Federal and state governments to introduce "shield laws" to protect journalists.

Awards

McManus is a Melbourne Quill winner, a recipient of

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp. The group's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television pr ...

’s Chairman’s Award and a

Walkley Award The annual Walkley Awards are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. They cover all media including print, television, documentary, radio, photographic and online media. The Gold Walkley is the highest prize and ...

judge. In 2007 Brisbane’s Jschool awarded Michael Harvey and McManus honorary doctorates in honour of the courage shown in their upholding of the journalist code of ethics .

Controversy

In the lead-up to the 2004 Federal election, McManus wrote an inflammatory article in the

on the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...

policies that was strongly criticized by Greens leader,

Bob Brown Robert James Brown (born 27 December 1944) is an Australian former politician, medical doctor and environmentalist. He was a Australian Senate, senator and the parliamentary leader of the Australian Greens. Brown was elected to the Australian ...

, and other prominent Greens politicians. The article claimed that the Greens had a policy to introduce over-the-counter

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

at pharmacies. Senator Brown made an official complaint to the Australian Press Council (Adjudication 1270), which handed down a highly critical finding against the Herald Sun, describing McManus’ article as "irresponsible journalism". "In the context of an approaching election, the potential damage was considerable," the APC Adjudication found. McManus was awarded the 2004 "

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of the year" mock award by Hack Watch, an independent blogging site, for the article.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcmanus, Gerard 1960 births Living people Australian journalists