Mark Davis is an Australian investigative

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and lawyer, best known for his work on '' Dateline'' for

SBS TV SBS TV (Seoul Broadcasting System Television) is a South Korean free-to-air television channel operated by Seoul Broadcasting System. The channel was launched on 9 December 1991. Unlike competing network MBC, SBS operates using a federalized ...

, where he is currently a co-presenter and video journalist. Davis was educated at Warrandyte Primary School and then St Kevin's College in Melbourne.

Career

ABC TV

Prior to commencing at SBS, Davis' background was as an investigative journalist with the ABC TV ''

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

'' and ''

Four Corners Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico. Most of the Four Corners regio ...

'' programs. Working on ''Foreign Correspondent'' in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, Davis was awarded the 1998

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 ...

for Excellence in Journalism for his report on ''North Korea Famine'' and in the same year was awarded the New York Festivals award for coverage of an ongoing news story, ''The Lion of the Panshi''. Whilst at ''Four Corners'', Davis won the 1998 Walkley Award for Best International Report with Peter McEvoy for ''The Survivor's Story'' and the 1999 Walkley Award for Best TV Current Affairs Report, called ''Blood on the Cross''.

SBS TV

Davis first hosted ''Dateline'' from 2003 to 2004, succeeding

Jana Wendt Jana Bohumila Wendt ( ; born 9 May 1956) is an Australian Gold Logie award-winning television journalist, reporter and writer. Early life Wendt was born in Melbourne to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949, as political refugees ...

and preceding

George Negus George Edward Negus AM (13 March 1942 – 15 October 2024) was an Australian journalist, author, television and radio presenter specialising in international affairs. He was a pioneer of Australian broadcast journalism, first appearing on the ...

. Davis went on assignment and returned to the program in 2011 as a co-host with video journalist Yalda Hakim. Both Davis and Hakim take turns presenting the program in approximately six week blocks, while the other is away on assignment. Whilst on assignment, in 2007 Davis was just metres away from the bombings that greeted

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was also the first woman elected to head a democratic governmen ...

's return to Pakistan and was in the thick of the action during

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

's coup in 2009. He has also won acclaim for reporting on the trial of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. Hicks traveled to Pakistan after converting to Islam to learn more about the faith, eventually leading to his time in th ...

. His previous interviews have also included Malaysia's former Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

and Pakistan's former President

Pervez Musharraf Pervez Musharraf (11 August 1943 – 5 February 2023) was a Pakistani general and politician who served as the tenth president of Pakistan from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his career in politics, he was a four-star general and appointed as ...

. During 2010, Davis gained unprecedented access to Australian

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

founder

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...

, secured the first interviews with two of the

Bali Nine The Bali Nine were a group of nine Australians convicted for attempting to drug smuggling, smuggle of heroin out of Indonesia in April 2005. The heroin was valued at around 4 million and was bound for Australia. Ringleaders Andrew Chan ( ...

and gained worldwide attention via the ''Dateline'' website for his profile of Dutch anti-Islam MP

Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...

. Davis was nominated for the Most Outstanding Public Affairs category at the 2011 Logies Awards for ''The Condemned'', an intimate portrayal of Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and

Myuran Sukumaran Myuran Sukumaran (17 April 1981 – 29 April 2015) was an Australian who was convicted in Indonesia of drug trafficking as a member of the Bali Nine. In 2005, Sukumaran was arrested in a room at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta, Bali with eight othe ...

, partially filmed inside Indonesia's

Kerobokan Kerobokan is a ''kelurahan'' (administrative village) in North Kuta district, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia. Kerobokan Prison is located there. It is boxed in by the Seminyak/Oberoi, Umalas/Canggu, and Denpasar regions. Near the main intersection ...

death-row prison. Davis has won a Logie and five Walkley Awards, including the

Gold Walkley The Gold Walkley is the major award of the Walkley Awards 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 ...

in 2000 for a ''Dateline'' report on pro-Indonesian militias in

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

, called ''Blood Money''.

References

External links

Official SBS Dateline website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Mark Australian television journalists Australian television presenters Walkley Award winners Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at St Kevin's College, Melbourne Journalists from Melbourne 20th-century Australian journalists 21st-century Australian journalists Australian investigative journalists