Tony Maniaty began his lengthy career in journalism with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He covered the conflict in East Timor in 1975, was Diplomatic Correspondent for Radio Australia, and in 1991-92 was European Correspondent for SBS's Dateline. His reporting of post-Soviet Eastern Europe included the documentary, Lithuania: Surviving the Revolution, nominated in Australia's Walkley Awards for Best International Report.
In 1993, Tony attended the Australian Film, Radio and Television School and wrote the short film Mr Ikegami's Flight (director: Robert Connolly) and television drama for the ABC and SBS. In 1996, he was appointed Executive Producer of ABC's The 7.30 Report, and in 1998 was promoted to Senior Advisor, Policy and Program Development, for ABC News and Current Affairs. In 2000, he began consulting on strategic communications and media training, and in 2003-2004 was Communications Manager at the Australia Council for the Arts.
Tony has published two novels, The Children Must Dance (1984) and Smyrna (1989), which was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award. He has written a memoir of his Brisbane boyhood, All Over The Shop (1993); edited The Power of Speech: 25 Years of the National Press Club (1989); and, from 1993-2008, contributed weekly book reviews to The Australian newspaper. He has been awarded Australia Council Fellowships, the Martin Bequest for Literature, the New South Wales Premier's Writers Award and the National Short Story of the Year Award.
In 2006, Tony obtained a Master of Arts (Media) degree for his research into television coverage of warfare from Vietnam to Iraq, and in 2007 he conducted the Risk Reporting course at the Danish School of Journalism in Arhus. As an Erasmus Mundus scholar, he also taught the School's Foreign Policy Reporting course in 2008 and 2009. Tony is currently Senior Lecturer in International Journalism at the University of Technology Sydney. A former Director of the Australian Centre of Independent Journalism at UTS, Tony remains on the ACIJ advisory board. He is a member of Sydney PEN, and a supporting member of the International News Safety Institute in Brussels.
