Media release: Rupert Murdoch AC will present the Boyer Lectures for 2008, to be broadcast on ABC Radio National later this year.

Each year the ABC Board invites a prominent Australian or group of Australians to present six radio lectures expressing their thoughts on major social, cultural, scientific or political issues.

ABC Chairman Maurice Newman AC said, “The ABC Board is delighted that this year Rupert Murdoch has accepted the challenge of presenting the lectures. Mr Murdoch’s extraordinary career places him in a rare position to illuminate our understanding of the rapidly changing media landscape; its impact on society today and in the future.”

Mr Murdoch said, “I am very honoured to accept the ABC’s invitation to deliver the 2008 Boyer Lectures. For almost 50 years the Boyers have provided a wonderful opportunity to examine Australian society and the values that are shaping the country’s future as well as the country’s history, identity and prosperity and what they mean for Australians and Australia’s place in the world. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to contribute something that I hope will be worthy of the Boyer tradition.”

Rupert Murdoch is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, one of the world’s largest diversified media companies. News Corporation’s operations include the production of major motion pictures and television programs, cable, satellite and broadcast television, newspaper, magazine and book publishing, and internet and mobile news, information and entertainment services, spanning the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America.

In 1954, Mr Murdoch took control of News Limited whose only key asset at the time was a majority interest in The News, the number-two daily newspaper in Adelaide. Since then News Corporation has become a worldwide organisation with more than 50,000 employees working in 130 companies in 60 countries.

Mr Murdoch has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for services to the media and to newspaper publishing in particular. Throughout News Corporation’s history, he and his family have been closely involved with, and made generous contributions to, various educational, cultural, medical and charitable organisations.

The 2008 Boyer Lectures will be broadcast on ABC Radio National over six weeks commencing in November.

This annual lecture began in 1959 and is named after the late Sir Richard Boyer a former Chairman of the ABC. Over the years featured speakers have come from a very broad range of disciplines and interests. Previous Boyer Lecturers include; former Reserve Bank Governor Ian Macfarlane, Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen, international affairs expert Owen Harries, historian Professor Geoffrey Blainey, author David Malouf, former Prime Minister (then head of the ACTU) Bob Hawke, Aboriginal leader and lawyer Noel Pearson and Professor Graeme Clark AC.