http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/mark-colvin/ Mark Colvin has been the presenter of ABC Radio’s long-running national daily current affairs program ‘PM’ since 1997. For more than 35 years, he has covered national and international stories for the ABC. In 1980 he reported from Iran on the US hostage crisis and the violent struggles for power in the country in the wake of the Khomeini revolution. As Europe correspondent he reported on the late stages of the Cold War, including the rise of Solidarity in Poland, and the ground-breaking talks between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Later, he reported from Serbia and Bosnia for Foreign Correspondent, and made a series of films about crime, corruption and politics in ‘90s Italy. In 1994, on a trip to Zaire and Rwanda to cover the Hutu-Tutsi massacres, Mark contracted a chronic and life-threatening disease which put him in hospital for many months and ultimately put an end to his in-the field reporting career. As presenter of PM, he keeps a close eye on national and international politics and uses his experience and historical knowledge to give some perspective to the stories of the day. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-journalists-journey-kicking-it-old-school-on-twitter/ One steamy night in February 1974, I went with friends to hear the great blues guitarist B.B. King in concert at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion. All went well until, an hour or so in, King collapsed on stage and had to be carried off. I left the Hordern in search of a phone box. The first one was broken. Finding one that worked, I stuffed some money in, rang one of the copy-takers at ABC News and dictated five lines of copy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-journalists-journey-kicking-it-old-school-on-twitter/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-journalists-journey-kicking-it-old-school-on-twitter/#item5622 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:50:08 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-berlusconi-blew-italys-chance-to-come-clean/ They called it Tangentopoli. ‘Tangenti’ is one of the Italian words for ‘bribes’, and Tangentopoli summed up the idea that Italian politics had become a game of Monopoly fuelled by kickbacks. I spent a lot of time in Italy in the 90s, starting with a story for ‘Foreign Correspondent’ in April 1993. Tangentopoli had convulsed the country, with magistrates uncovering vast swathes of corruption involving most of the leading political figures of the previous three decades. My first encounter with the new reality came in a town in Abruzzo called Chieti. It was a sort of magnified microcosm of Italy, because almost every councillor on the local government had been arrested for corruption. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-berlusconi-blew-italys-chance-to-come-clean/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-berlusconi-blew-italys-chance-to-come-clean/#item5156 Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:55:35 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-road-to-democracy-is-long-and-bloody/ The ABC’s London bureau was effectively in mourning when I arrived as a correspondent at the beginning of 1980. Tony Joyce, a witty, talented and energetic reporter from the bureau, had been shot in the head in Zambia six weeks before. The pistol bullet ricocheted inside his skull, and the unforgivable behaviour of the Zambian authorities meant that by the time he was medevacced to London, it was too late. From November 1979 to early February 1980, he was in a coma. On February 3 - exactly 31 years ago - he died. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-road-to-democracy-is-long-and-bloody/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-road-to-democracy-is-long-and-bloody/#item5041 Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:59:49 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-korean-war-never-ended/ The Korean War stopped for practical purposes in 1953, but technically, it never ended. This is a matter of theory for most people around the world, but clearly for the North Korean leadership – and many of its brainwashed people – it’s a brutal reality. This week’s shelling by North Korea of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong was just the latest illustration of this attitude. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-korean-war-never-ended/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-korean-war-never-ended/#item4556 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 18:45:37 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/waterboarding-did-we-become-what-we-are-fighting-against/ Tuol Sleng is a name, like Auschwitz or the Gulag, which should strike horror into the heart.  Tuol Sleng was the prison where the Khmer Rouge took Cambodians unfortunate enough to have fallen afoul of the regime, perhaps because they had a medical qualification, or in some cases merely because they could read.  Tens of thousands went into Tuol Sleng – otherwise known as S-21. Very few came out.  But before they died, they were tortured. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/waterboarding-did-we-become-what-we-are-fighting-against/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/waterboarding-did-we-become-what-we-are-fighting-against/#item4442 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:50:28 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-asio-got-it-right-during-a-time-it-got-so-much-wrong/ I’ve written before about how, at the age of 25, I discovered that my father was a very senior member of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. I was visiting him in Washington, where he was serving in what had once been Kim Philby’s job - as the SIS liaison with the CIA. One reason that he chose to tell me on that visit, I think, was that during my stay at his house in Washington, some of his colleagues from London would also be visiting. He needed to know that I would not say or do anything untoward. I was, after all, a long-haired journalist working for the Sydney rock station Double-Jay. Not exactly prime security material. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-asio-got-it-right-during-a-time-it-got-so-much-wrong/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-asio-got-it-right-during-a-time-it-got-so-much-wrong/#item4345 Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:45:19 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-quiet-diplomacy-equals-silence-on-human-rights/ While you’re watching the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony tonight, take a moment to look at the VIP box. The first guest of honour in New Delhi is Britain’s Prince Edward, there representing his mother, the Queen, in her capacity of Head of the Commonwealth. Nothing unusual about that. But alongside him in the guest of honour spot will be Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka. The Games are these days the most visible expression of the Commonwealth itself – an organisation which aims to promote democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-quiet-diplomacy-equals-silence-on-human-rights/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/When-quiet-diplomacy-equals-silence-on-human-rights/#item4241 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:55:18 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/taking-the-twit-out-of-twitter-and-finding-value/ A challenge from a former Howard Government spin-doctor on Twitter this week set me to thinking, not for the first time, about how journalists, especially ABC journalists, in the age of social media, can maintain and protect their impartiality. You should know first that I use Twitter mainly to disseminate work by other people that interests me. I post links to articles, essays, video or audio, and jokes to leaven the mix, which reflect the fairly wide selection of reading I do on the internet every day. A proportion of what I post is also breaking news. So for example, when the Deputy Speakership was decided this week, I posted three ‘tweets’ in quick succession, giving the vote numbers: one from @annabelcrabb, one from the political blogger @mfarnsworth, and one from @ABCNews. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/taking-the-twit-out-of-twitter-and-finding-value/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/taking-the-twit-out-of-twitter-and-finding-value/#item4152 Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:40:15 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dialysis-sure-beats-dying-but-a-kidney-would-be-better/ I’m writing this in the renal unit of the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney’s south. I’m typing with my right hand because I am not allowed to use my left. The reason? I am on dialysis. In 1994, in Rwanda, I contracted an illness which was transitory and minor in itself, but which triggered an auto-immune system disease which nearly killed me. In the process it damaged my kidneys – and although they recovered in the short term, the damage was done. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dialysis-sure-beats-dying-but-a-kidney-would-be-better/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dialysis-sure-beats-dying-but-a-kidney-would-be-better/#item4044 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:50:15 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-need-to-get-over-our-poll-addiction/ Australia really needs to do something about its addiction to opinion polls. The week following the election, just like the weeks that led up to it, was dominated by polls. First came the local ones in the rural Independents’ electorates, which some interpreted as a new set of riding instructions to Messrs Katter, Windsor and Oakeshott. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Mark Colvin) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-need-to-get-over-our-poll-addiction/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/we-need-to-get-over-our-poll-addiction/#item3955 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:50:03 +0000 Mark Colvin | Author bios | The Punch