Ben Hills
Ben Hills was one of Australia’s best-known and most respected investigative journalists. Across a career stretching back to the 1960s, he reported from more than 60 countries on five continents, uncovering corruption, exposing injustice and bringing clarity to complex global stories.
Working primarily for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, with a period producing for Australia’s 60 Minutes current affairs programme, Ben specialised in investigative journalism that challenged government, big business and entrenched power. His reporting helped shape national debate and, in some cases, alter the course of political and corporate history.
In October 2014, Ben was inducted into the Melbourne Press Club Media Hall of Fame, recognising his outstanding contribution to Australian journalism. Read more >
Ben spent more than 30 years working for Australia’s two leading broadsheets, The Age in Melbourne and The Sydney Morning Herald in Sydney. As a foreign correspondent in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, he was based variously in Africa and the Middle East, East Asia and Japan.
In Australia, Ben became widely known for hard-hitting investigative reporting. His work ranged from exposing the Loans Affair, which contributed to the downfall of the Whitlam Government, to investigations into corruption in government land deals, the asbestos industry, Exxon, quack medicine, genetically modified food and a high-profile Sydney murder mystery.
A selection of Ben’s articles is available on this website. Read more >
Ben wrote six books, combining deep investigative research with compelling narrative storytelling. His work includes:
- Blue Murder – a landmark account of the asbestos industry and the fight for justice
- Japan: Behind the Lines – reporting from three years living and working in Japan
- Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne – a controversial international bestseller
- The Island of the Ancients – an exploration of history, culture and continuity on a remote Mediterranean island
- Breaking News: The Golden Age of Graham Perkin – media history and biography
- Stop the Presses! – a forensic account of the collapse of the Fairfax newspaper company
His writing continues to be read, referenced and debated internationally. Read more >
Ben Hills passed away in Sydney in June 2018. His legacy endures through his journalism, books and photographic archive, and through stories that held power to account and gave voice to those without one. This website preserves his work as a permanent public record of a remarkable career in Australian and international journalism.