Max Uechtritz has been a foreig
n correspondent, program-maker and international executive during a 30-year career in broadcasting.
He has the unique distinction in the Australian media of running the largest news operations in the three main forms – public broadcasting, commercial television and online.
Uechtritz was the ABC’s Executive Director of News and Current Affairs (2000-2004) then Network Director of News (2004-2005) at the Nine Network Australia.
He was Editor-in-Chief of the country’s biggest web portal Ninemsn then Director of Programmes at Al Jazeera English (2009-2010) – responsible for all documentaries and current affairs at the global network. In recent years he’s been Network Investigations & Features Editor and ANZAC Centenary Executive Producer at Seven Network Australia.
Before his management career, Uechtritz was an ABC foreign correspondent, reporting from more than 30 countries on five continents, covering first hand some of recent history’s major events. These include the Tiananmen Square massacre, first Gulf War, Soviet coup attempt, Russian White House siege, Bosnian war and Croatian, Slovenian and Kosovo conflicts, German Reunification, Nelson Mandela’s election, Bill Clinton’s re-election, demise of Margaret Thatcher and the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics.
Uechtritz is a two-time winner of Australia’s most prestigious journalism prize the Walkley Award, twice highly commended and four times a finalist. He has also won Television Penguin and Gold Thorn awards and the Bicentennial Pater Award for Investigative Reporting.
As a recipient of the Centenary Medal, awarded by the Governor General and Prime Minister to mark 100 years since Federation, Uechtritz was recognized for services to news and current affairs in Australia.
He is a member of the editorial advisory board of A24, the pan-African multi-media company, and was on the founding advisory board of the Brussels-based International News Safety Institute (INSI). He sat on the advisory board for the CEW Bean Foundation, which promotes the work of Australian war historians and correspondents.