Janet Albrechtsen
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Janet Albrechtsen, SJD[1] (born 1966) is an Australian opinion columnist, social commentator and conservative pundit with the News Limited-owned newspaper, The Australian. She is also a member of the Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's state-owned national broadcaster.
Albrechtsen was born in Adelaide and graduated in law from Adelaide University, then moved to Sydney and worked as a commercial lawyer [2]. She has a doctorate (Doctor of Juridical Studies) [3] from the University of Sydney Law School and has taught as an academic [4]. Since turning to commentary, she has worked for the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age and Quadrant.
Albrechtsen frequently comments on legal issues. She has criticised both the High Court of Australia and the Family Court of Australia for judicial activism.
Albrechtsen has attracted vigorous criticism of her own. In 2002, the ABC's Media Watch program accused her of misquoting a French psychiatrist, Jean-Jacques Rassial, by changing "gang rape had become an initiation rite for male adolescents", to "Pack rape of white girls is an initiation rite of passage for a small section of young male Muslim youths", among multiple other misquotations.[1] Albrechtsen strongly denied misquoting anyone and accused Media Watch of "misleading conduct of the kind you purport to expose", left-wing bias and ambush journalism.[2] The full exchange, along with letters and transcripts, is hosted on ABC's Media Watch website.[3]
In February 2005 Albrechtsen was appointed by the Minister for Communications, Senator Helen Coonan to the board of the ABC [5]. The appointment was criticised by former Media Watch host David Marr, among others.[4]
Albrechtsen had been a regular and vocal critic of the ABC prior to her appointment to its Board. Once appointed she undertook not to make further comments on the ABC in her newspaper columns[citation needed].
She was married in 1991 to lawyer, John O'Sullivan, and now has 3 children, two daughters and a son, aged 14, 12 and 7.
[edit] References
- ^ Media Watch (9 September 2002). "Janet Albrechtsen's View". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Email from Janet Albrechtsen to Peter McEvoy (6 September 2002). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
- ^ Media Watch, Muslims, Albrechtsen and Others (2002). Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
- ^ Caldwell, Alison (24 February 2005). ABC critic appointed to board of directors. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-04-30.
[edit] External links
- Albrechtsen's biography at The Australian's website
- Archive of Albrechtsen's columns with reader comments, from February 2007 onwards
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