Obituary: Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy, former journalist and presenter at ABC and SBS, has died at the age of 77 from cancer.

Originally from Canberra, Murphy joined ABC in Sydney in 1965 as a trainee in current affairs radio.

He worked on the ABC radio current affairs program AM and on ABC television’s This Day Tonight. 

He also had two stints as London-based correspondent for the national broadcaster.

Upon returning to Australia in 1979, he joined the new current affairs program Nationwide and hosted the radio program PM for ten years.

As well as continuing to present PM on radio, in 1984 he joined Network 0-28 (now SBS) to front its new current affairs program, Dateline World. The weekly program went through numerous format and timeslot changes and was later re-named Dateline.

In 1994 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to public broadcasting and to journalism. In 2000 he was awarded the Walkley Award for Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.

Source: The Canberra Times, 23 January 1984. ABC.