Ian McPhedran is an Australian author and retired journalist. Having begun his journalism career at The Canberra Times, from 1998 he worked as a defence writer for the News Corp Australia mastheads, including the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and Northern Territory News, before announcing his retirement in January 2016. HarperCollins has published seven books by McPhedran, who won a Walkley Awardin 1999.
Career
Prior to 1998, McPhedran was foreign affairs and defence writer for The Canberra Times. Between 1998 and 2016 he worked as a defence writer News Corp Australia, writing for publications including the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and Northern Territory News, before announcing his retirement in January 2016. At the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, McPhedran reported on the war from Baghdad, staying at the Meridien Palestine Hotel. McPhedran was expelled from the country by the Iraqi Government soon after ABC photojournalist Paul Moran was killed by a suicide car bomber in northeastern Iraq on 23 October 2003. McPhedran reported that Iraqi officials had accused him of not following regulations when he left his hotel to visit the Information Ministry building without a minder. McPhedran's first book, The Amazing SAS, was published by HarperCollins in 2005. Michelle Grattan's review in The Age criticised McPhedran for offering the 'official account' of an incident in Afghanistan in which innocent people died after being mistaken for insurgents. She suggested that further discussion and analysis was needed of the incident, but overall she praised McPhedran's remarkable access. In 2009 McPhedran was invited by the Australian Defence Force to take part in an "embedding trial". McPhedran suggested the ADF's model should rather be called 'media hosting' and he was sometimes frustrated by a lack of access and time wasting during the trial.
Family and personal life
McPhedran, the oldest son born to his Anglo-Burmese refugee father, Colin McPhedran, and Australian mother, was raised in Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. McPhedran is married to journalist Verona Burgess. They live in Balmain, Sydney. White Butterflies, a book written by Ian McPhedran's father Colin with editing assistance from Verona Burgess, tells the story of Colin's journey on foot from Burma to India during World War II to escape the Japanese invasion of Burma. Colin, then 11 years old, embarked on the journey with his mother and two siblings but only he survived.
