Lecturer - Journalism, Media and Communication
| Contact Campus | Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building | Humanities Building |
| Room Reference | 573 |
| Telephone | +61 3 6226 2938 |
| Fax | +61 3 6226 7631 |
| John.Martinkus@utas.edu.au |
John Martinkus joined the Journalism, Media and Communications staff in January 2009.
Since 1995 John has worked covering conflicts in East Timor, Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan and several other countries. He has written three non-fiction books and worked predominantly outside of Australia in wire service, newspaper and magazine journalism. For the last four years he has been working for SBS Dateline, filming and reporting stories for that program, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan, where conditions are very difficult for journalists.
John has said: "I'm hoping to be able to pass on some of what I have learned working across these different mediums and in these environments and to offer some practical instruction on how to put together a story in video as well as in print." In late 2011 he travelled to Afghanistan as The Australian War Memorials Official Australian War Cinematographer and produced three documentaries detailing the complexities of Australian operations in Afghanistan.
John Martinkus began work as a journalist freelancing news and feature stories from East Timor in 1995. He then covered the conflict there for Associated Press and Australian Associated Press and various other outlets. He has since covered conflicts elsewhere in Indonesia and in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Burma for print and since 2004 for SBS Dateline.
He has published three non fiction accounts of the conflicts in East Timor, Aceh and Iraq and been nominated for three Walkley awards for his coverage of East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan in both print and television and highly commended once.
In 2002 his book on East Timor A Dirty Little War was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's literary awards and in the same year he published Quarterly Essay No 7: Paradise Betrayed – West Papua’s struggle for independence.