Derek Wilding

Derek joined UTS as a Visiting Fellow in August 2014 and is now Co-Director of the Centre for Media Transition. CMT is an interdisciplinary initiative of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, launched in July 2017.

Derek came to UTS from an industry-based position as Executive Director of the Australian Press Council. He worked closely on the Council’s responses to the Independent Media Inquiry and the Convergence Review and on the adaptation of the Council’s structure and governance to embrace smaller, digital-only publishers. As Executive Director, he led the Council’s complaints-handling functions and worked with the Chair and members on a review of the Council’s standards of practice.

Before this, he worked for the Australian Communications and Media Authority where he managed the implementation of the federal government’s media ownership reform package and the resulting commercial transactions. He also managed the ACMA’s monitoring and compliance activities on disclosures rules for commercial radio, as well as other content rules such as the anti-siphoning sports list, pay TV drama expenditure and the anti-terrorism standards for narrowcast television.

Derek finished his time at the ACMA by managing an operational policy team dedicated to complex regulatory problems spanning the legal and engineering spheres, including the transition to digital television.

From 2000 to 2005 Derek was the Director of the Communications Law Centre at UNSW. He taught media and communications regulation, conducted research and led the Centre’s policy work on issues such as media diversity, cash for comment and telecommunications consumer protection. He has also worked for the Office of Film and Literature Classification and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• News media, diversity and plurality
• Convergence and media transition
• Structural and content regulation
• Media freedoms, privileges and responsibilities

TEACHING INTERESTS

• Media law
• Media and communications regulation

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY APPOINTMENTS

• Co-Director
  University of Technology Sydney, Centre for Media Transition, Sydney, AustraliaJul 2017
• Visiting Fellow
  University of Technology Sydney, Law, Ultimo, AustraliaAug 2014 - Jul 2017

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS

• Executive Director
  Australian Press Council, Australia2011 - Aug 2014
• Manager
  Australian Communications and Media Council, Australia2006 - 2011
• Principal Policy Officer
  Office of Film and Literature Classification, Australia2005 - 2006
• Director
  Communications Law Centre, Australia2000 - 2005

DEGREES

• PhD
  Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
• BA(Hons) LLB
  University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• AVAILABILITY
  Masters Research or PhD student supervision

DISCIPLINES

• Law and humanities
• Law reform
• Media and communication law