Chris Mitchell

Christopher John Mitchell is an Australian journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of The Australian from 2002 to 2015.

Journalism career In 1973 Mitchell began his career as a 17-year-old cadet on the former afternoon Brisbane tabloid, The Telegraph. After working at the Townsville Bulletin, The Daily Telegraph and the Australian Financial Review, he joined The Australian in 1984.

In 1992, aged 35, Mitchell was appointed editor of The Australian. In 1995 he became editor-in-chief of Queensland Newspapers. In the role, he had editorial oversight of The Cairns Post, Townsville Bulletin and Gold Coast Bulletin. Mitchell continued as a columnist at the paper. Prior to his retirement, Mitchell had completed 42 years as a journalist with 24 of those years as an editor. Rupert Murdoch praised his contributions as News Corporation's longest serving editor worldwide. Speaking at its launch, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the book as containing "a crisp plain English account of the dynamics of politics and the media in Australia".

Climate change Mitchell was named by ethicist and board member of the Climate Change Authority, Clive Hamilton, as one of Australia's "Dirty Dozen", a list people he believed to be "doing the most to block action on climate change in Australia". He featured in editions of the list published in 2006, 2009 and 2014.

In 2017, Mitchell wrote an opinion piece entitled "Climate hysteria hits 'peak stupid' in hurricane season".

Other roles he is an ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.

Awards and recognition In the 2019 Australia Day Honours Mitchell was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the print media through senior editorial roles, as a journalist, and to Indigenous education programs".