National Indigenous Times

The National Indigenous Times is an Indigenous Australian affairs website first published in newspaper form on 27 February 2002. Since late February 2016, it has functioned as an online publication owned by Indigenous businessman and former Kimberley Land Council CEO Wayne Bergmann and Indigenous businessman Clinton Wolf. It was formerly owned and edited by Tony Barrass. The current editor is Hannah Cross.[1]

NIT was originally set up by Owen Carriage, the founder of the Koori Mail.[2]

Major stories

Major news stories broken by the NIT include:

  • stolen wages (which won a Walkley Award)[3]
  • government staff anonymously representing themselves as independent witnesses[4] in the Lateline report on child abuse in remote communities, with particular reference to Mutitjulu, Northern Territory.

Awards

At the first Multicultural Media Awards in September 2012, Gerry Georgatos, then an investigative reporter and feature writer with the NIT, received two awards: Coverage of Indigenous Affairs and Investigative Reporting, and Feature Writing. In three years with NIT Gerry Georgatos delivered breakthrough stories on Native Title, corrupt practices and government neglect of poverty-stricken communities.[5] Georgatos is now a university researcher and has expertise in racism, suicide prevention and Aboriginal issues. His correspondence for NIT was as a volunteer, "bringing to the fore voices from his many travels".[6]

At the 2013 Multicultural and Indigenous Media Awards (MIMA) at the NSW parliament, Georgatos won three awards including Journalist of the Year for his coverage on the extent of suicide among Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. Georgatos was able to secure commitments from the federal Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion, to increase suicide prevention responses and strategies.

Plagiarism

On 27 February 2012, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's program Media Watch aired a segment that detailed how the newspaper had repeatedly taken substantial material from other media sources without any attribution.[7] This was addressed by editor Stephen Hagan who promised to deliver more original material and use citations when using external references; Hagan departed in February 2013.

Administration and change of ownership

In January and February 2015, the NIT was placed in administration because of accumulating legal bills arising from a defamation case and an unfair dismissal claim by Hagan.[8] NIT survived administration with a mix of the longstanding owners/founders and a number new part owners.[9][10] Just before Gerry Georgatos announced in February he was no longer with the newspaper, he went in to bat for the newspaper on National Indigenous Television.[11]

In December 2015, Tony Barrass bought the NIT masthead from Sydney liquidators O'Brien Palmer and successfully launched the online version on 28 February 2016.

gollark: You mean TJ10?
gollark: Not unless you sell me your soul. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
gollark: I'm banning you from Dino Cave!
gollark: HATER!
gollark: *continues being TJ09 regardless of what the jealous haterz say yo*

References
  1. "ABOUT - National Indigenous Times". National Indigenous Times. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  2. Gosford, Bob (8 July 2010). "What's happening at the National Indigenous Times?". Crikey. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  3. Finalists and Judges 2004 Walkley Awards for "Stolen Wages Payback Shame" Archived 1 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "OIPC's 'Baby-faced Assassin': Senior public servant adopts bogus identity; backs minister's claims", NIT issue 109, 13 July 2006. Accessed 22 October 2006
  5. ""MMC Awards sponsored by NSW Government"".
  6. Herbert, Bronwyn (30 October 2014). "Aboriginal deaths in custody bring focus to disturbing rate of imprisonment" – via www.abc.net.au.
  7. "Credit where credit's due". 27 February 2012 – via www.abc.net.au.
  8. Andrew Burrell (13 February 2015). "Push for National Indigenous Times". The Australian. The NIT’s parent company, Destiny Publications was placed into voluntary administration last month over mounting legal bills sparked by an unfair dismissal case brought by former editor Stephen Hagan and a defamation case launched by former Fortescue Metals Group executive Michael Gallagher.(subscription required)
  9. "Push for National Indigenous Times" by Andrew Burrell, The Australian, 13 February 2015
  10. "Administrators put award-winning National Indigenous Times newspaper up for sale" by Emilia Terzon, ABC News, 19 January 2015
  11. "Gerry Georgatos on the Future of the National Indigenous Times" on YouTube, NITV News
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