Thank you for your interest in these roles with the Australian Press Council.
Appointments have now been made with the following announcement released by the Chair of the Australian Press Council, Neville Stevens AO.
The Australian Press Council (APC) is pleased to announce the appointment of three new Public Members and one new Adjudication Panel Member. The new Public Members are Mohamed el Roubi, Dr Sid Vohra and Diana Nestorovska. Shenal Basnayake is the new Adjudication Panel Member. Vice-Chair Julie Kinross is leaving the Press Council after serving the maximum number of terms in her role.
Public Members have an important leadership and governance role in the operations of the APC, and Adjudication Panel Members are critical in upholding the APC’s standards. “The new Members announced today bring a diversity of thought and experience to their roles which will assist us in our work of promoting freedom of speech and responsible journalism in Australia’s print and digital media,” said Neville Stevens, AO, APC Chair.
Ms Kinross has served on the Press Council for more than nine years, across three consecutive terms. “Julie has made an enormous contribution to all areas of Press Council activity, and has been a constant source of wise counsel,” said Mr Stevens. “Her outstanding personal qualities, legal acumen and wide-ranging public policy experience will be missed. We wish her all the best in her future endeavours,” he added. Ms Kinross’ term as Vice-Chair ends on December 31, 2021.
The APC’s new Public Members:
- Mohamed el Roubi is a General Counsel with extensive experience in a range of multinational companies and is currently working remotely for Cairo corporate law firm Adsero – Ragy Soliman & Partners. Based in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Mr el Roubi is a Director and member of the Audit and Risk Committee at Mental Illness Education ACT. He has lived and worked in the Middle East, US and Europe, and is bi-lingual in English and Arabic. He has broad legal, governance, risk and compliance experience across a range of industries and is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is also a licensed Attorney and Counsellor at Law in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia
- Dr Sid Vohra is Director of Medical Services and Chief Medical Officer at Orange Health Service in NSW, with responsibility for Orange Hospital, Australia’s largest regional health facility. He has extensive experience in developing and managing stakeholder relationships at a community, State and Federal level in matters relating to health care systems and rural and regional health care. Dr Vohra’s general management covers full executive level management of all specialised medical services at the hospital. He has around 160 health professionals reporting directly to him. Previously, he worked as a Medical Consultant at CommInsure and was a Consultant at McKinsey & Company. He is a specialist medical practitioner and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (FRACMA). He is also a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM). Dr Vohra’s qualifications include an MBA from INSEAD France and a Master of Health Management from the University of NSW.
- Diana Nestorovska is a governance and legal professional with extensive experience working across diverse sectors and industries in Australia and overseas. Ms Nestorovska is a former Australian diplomat, speaks multiple languages and understands the workings of government at an international, State and Federal level. She is currently employed as the General Counsel for eCommerce business New Aim Pty Ltd. Based in Victoria, she is a non-executive Director of the South Gippsland Water Corporation and is a current MBA candidate at the Melbourne Business School. She is a sessional academic at Monash University’s Department of Business Law and Taxation and a Member of La Trobe University’s Human Research Ethics Committee. She is a Member of the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
The APC’s new Adjudication Panel Member:
- Shenal Basnayake is the CEO of the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), a federation of Australia’s eight science teacher associations and the national advocate for school science educators, where he led a major transformation to ensure ongoing relevance for the organisation with its constituents. He has lived and worked internationally in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and spent a decade working across Northern Australia (and most recently in parts of regional NSW where he was involved as the senior executive champion for Indigenous staff across the NSW Department of Industry cluster and oversaw delivery of the cluster’s first Reconciliation Action Plan). Based in Sydney, Mr Basnayake is also on the Board of the Science Schools Foundation and is a Member of Westmead Hospital’s Member Safety and Quality Committee.
The APC is responsible for promoting high standards of media practice, community access to information of public interest and freedom of expression through the media. Members include the majority of Australia’s major newspaper, magazine and online publishers. These publishers agree to comply with the APC’s binding standards of practice. When complaints about these members are made to the APC, the material is evaluated against these standards by the APC’s Adjudication Panels, which are independent of publishers.
Neville Stevens AO
Chair
