Rod Campbell never sought the limelight. He did not want a public element to his life, but it came because of he chose the profession of journalism.
It is public work. The more so with Rod’s chosen niche of journalism – “covering the courts” — being the eyes and ears of the public – who obviously cannot attend to see for themselves.
What happens in the courts has a profound influence on the way those people live in our society.
This has been Rod Campbell’s life work: to bring a knowledge and understanding of what happens in the courts to the people who are ultimately affected by it.
In this work Rod was put to greater a professional test than most professionals. Because journalists’ work is there for all to see and to be picked over for fairness and accuracy.
It is all right for lawyers. They can charge for their mistakes. Journalists have to correct them — publicly.
And I can tell you today not many journalists can put their head above the parapet and say they have had fewer corrections and mistakes than Rod Campbell. And not many can, as Rod did, openly admit a mistake, correct it, and continue
And not many journalists have earned and received the respect, friendship and affection that Rod Campbell has obtained from the people he reported on. As evidenced here today.
Can you believe it, even David Eastman wrote to Rod from his jail cell expressing concern and wishing him well on learning of Rod’s illness.
A career in journalism has its drawbacks. The relentless daily deadline and can create enormous stress.
The wretched Canberra Times tin shed at 18 Mort Street which churned out typescript like a Dickensian blacking factory was permeated with booze and inescapable cigarette smoke. And nicotine is an accursedly addictive substance. Smoking was not banned in the newsroom until 1990.
In some respects, the career and journalistic environment that nurtured Rod also took him.
It was a career of great achievement. Rod Campbell’s work – more than anyone else’s – brought to the people of this community a knowledge of what happened their courts, and perhaps more importantly, an understanding of what was happening in those courts:
The magistrates court, the coroners court, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the myriad of other tribunals that affect people’s lives and the Supreme Court and the appellate courts.
Rod did not have formal legal qualifications. In a way that made him a better legal reporter. He made no assumptions about legal knowledge of ways of legal thinking. It enabled him to better bring the law to the people.
Today we are mourning Rod’s death and celebrating his life and work.
Rod never sought self-aggrandisement. He would prefer 400 words without a byline on Page 9 than 100 words with a byline on Page 1.
Rod never sought to be special. But what is special and extraordinary about Rod is the cumulation of qualities.
Trust, integrity and honesty are primary. If Rod said or wrote anything you knew it was true to the best of his ability.
Diligence. Rod never let a case go. He followed Eastman, Murphy, Puhl and numerous others doggedly. He did first-rate investigative work, particularly the whiplash cases. Over many months he traced names of defendants and plaintiffs through traffic accident damages claims, exposing the set-ups and frauds – and saved this community hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums.
The sheer volume was astonishing.
In the 1980s and 1990s The Canberra Times library conducted the annual byline weigh-in. The library clipped a pasted not only for subject matter, but separately for each journalist’s bylined work. Each journalist’s byline file was physically weighed as a crude measure of output in a non-digital age.
Rod was often pipped by someone or other who had a good year, but no-one did what he did – come in in the top three year in year out.
This is not a case of never mind the quality feel the width. We know the quality was there, too.
Rod believed in justice and process and was determined to expose when the system failed and when it worked.
Perhaps, though, one of Rod’s greatest legacies is his tutorship. Virtually every young journalist who worked at The Canberra Times learnt from Rod’s craft.
Many are here today and would remember their nervousness on the first day of covering the courts. They were all encouraged and nurtured by Rod and learnt from him selflessly passing on his wealth of experience in what can be the highly competitive dog-eat-dog world of journalism.
Rod was never like that. His generosity as a journalist was unsurpassed.
We’ll miss you Rod. Journalism will miss you. The people of Canberra will miss you. Vale.
The results of the enquiry into David Eastman’s conviction has turned my mind to Rod today. I will always consider him to be one of the greatest journos I have worked alongside. Most of what I know about legal reporting, I learnt from Rod. I was terribly sad when he died. So glad I cam across this eulogy – better late than never.