Leigh Sales

Leigh Sales is an author and award-winning journalist and anchor of "Lateline" with the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC.

Career

Sales grew up in Queensland and was a journalist with Nine television in Brisbane before joining the ABC. She is a graduate of Deakin University (Master of International Relations) and QUT (Bachelor of Journalism).

Awards

2005: Walkley Award for best Radio Current Affairs reporting Guantanamo Bay

2006: finalist for Walkley Award for best Radio Current Affairs reporting Hurricane Katrina

2007: finalist for Walkley Award for best Non Fiction Book Detainee 002

2007: George Munster Award for Independent Journalism Detainee 002

2008: shortlist for Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for best Non Fiction Book Detainee 002

At the ABC

She currently anchors Lateline on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights (with Tony Jones in the role on Mondays and Tuesdays). From 2006-2008, she was the ABC's National Security Correspondent based in Sydney and was the network's Washington correspondent from 2001 to 2005. Sales has held positions in national radio current afairs and was NSW political reporter (covering the 1999 and 2007 state elections and the 2000 Olympics).

Writing

Her first book, 'Detainee 002: the Case of David Hicks' was published in 2007 by Melbourne University Publishing. An essay, 'On Doubt', is due in 2009 as part of MUP's Little Books on Big Ideas series which has featured Germaine Greer, David Malouf, Blanche D'Alpuget and Barry Kosky. . She occasionally writes for "The Australian" and has also appeared in "The Sydney Morning Herald", "The Age", "The Monthly", "The Diplomat" and before its demise, "The Bulletin".

David Hicks book

Sales wrote the first book published about the Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, David Hicks. Titled "Detainee 002: the case of David Hicks" (MUP, May 2007), it details the story of Hicks' capture and detention and includes allegations of torture at the hands of the US military. The book, published almost a year before David Hicks would be free to speak publicly of his experiences, was prepared in part from Sales' interviews with Hicks' father and lawyers for Hicks. [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/book-to-tell-torture-tales-when-hicks-cannot/2007/04/03/1175366241097.html The Age: 'Book to tell torture tales when Hicks cannot']

Sales visited Guantanamo Bay twice in her years as Washington correspondent. Richard Ackland of the Sydney Morning Herald, says the book canvasses some of the important issues around detainment such as, What is a terrorist? How should those people rounded up in a "war on terror" be detained and tried? To what extent should the normal decencies be suspended for the "worst of the worst"? [Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/5/07]

Australian gonzo journalist and best-selling author, John Birmingham reviewed the book for the "Australian Literary Review" on June 6, 2007, describing it as "fascinating and masterfully done." He wrote:

It is to Sales's credit that she manages to cut through the layers of meaning, many of them contrary, that have wrapped themselves around the diminutive figure of this former slaughterhouse worker and self-confessed jihadi. It is even more impressive that she does so, not with a cold forensic detachment or the ferocity of a crusading reporter, but with real empathy for the best intentions of all involved in the story...

References

* [http://abc.net.au/aroundtheworld/content/s1325475.htm ABC Biography]
* [http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/catalogue/0-522-85400-1.html, Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, 19/5/07]
* [http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/catalogue/0-522-85400-1.html Melbourne University Publishing]
* [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/book-to-tell-torture-tales-when-hicks-cannot/2007/04/03/1175366241097.html The Age: 'Book to tell torture tales when Hicks cannot']
* [http://www.detainee002.com Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks]