Walkley-award winning journalist Michael Brissenden has been named as the permanent host of flagship ABC current affairs program AM.
Brissenden won his second Walkley award for Scoop of the Year in 2014 for a joint investigation with Guardian Australia’s political editor Lenore Taylor and Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill which appeared on both Guardian Australia and the ABC.
The Guardian and Brissenden, then the ABC’s defence and national security correspondent, revealed that Australia had spied on, or attempted to spy on, Indonesia’s President Susilo Yudhoyono, his wife and nine members of his inner circle in 2009.
In January Brissenden stepped in as temporary host of AM when Chris Uhlmann left to become the ABC’s political editor.
An ABC veteran of 28 years, Brissenden has been a political journalist and foreign correspondent in Moscow, Europe and the US as well as political editor for The 7.30 Report between 2003 and 2009 when Kerry O’Brien was hosting.
“Radio current affairs was where I began my career and it’s a great honour to be returning to host AM, the flagship program of the radio current affairs stable,” Brissenden said on Monday.
“Despite the rapidly changing media environment, AM continues to be essential daily listening and one of Australia’s most important, agenda-setting programs.”
AM is a 40 year old agenda-setting morning radio current affairs program, which runs on Monday through Saturday from 8am on ABC Local Radio. It is also broadcast earlier, at 6.05am (10 minutes) on Local Radio and from 7.10am (20 minutes) on Radio National’s Breakfast program. Its sister programs The World Today with Eleanor Hall and PM with Mark Colvin also run on both Local Radio and Radio National.
It also goes out as part of Radio National’s Breakfast program, hosted by Fran Kelly on the national network.
AM is repeated on the Local Radio network – including Sydney’s 702 and Melbourne’s 744 – at 8am and runs for half an hour.
The ABC’s head of current affairs Bruce Belsham said Brissenden would make AM his own.
“He is a seasoned and canny political observer, a journalist with deep insight and knowledge and a radio talent with a beautiful voice,” Belsham said.
Brissenden’s new job is just one of several senior roles which have been vacant following redundancies and resignations at ABC. TV programs Foreign Correspondent, 7.30 and Australian Story are all looking for new executive producers.
