Pioneering New Zealand journalist Cole Catley dies at 88

Aug 21, 2011, 2:41 GMT

Wellington - Dame Christine Cole Catley, a pioneering New Zealand journalist, author and publisher, died in Auckland Sunday at the age of 88 from lung cancer, a family statement said.

After making her name as one of the first high-profile female reporters in New Zealand, she was recruited by Australia's ABC radio network and established its first news bureau in Indonesia in 1956.

Cole Catley travelled widely throughout Indonesia for the next two years as a correspondent and became a favourite of President Sukarno, who frequently asked her to sing duets with him at his rallies.

Returning home when television arrived in New Zealand, she became the country's first newspaper television critic and went on to be tutor-in-charge of the first school of journalism in 1967, insisting that half the students be female.

Cole Catley established an independent publishing company in 1973 to encourage young authors and founded two literary trusts. She was made a Dame Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006 for services to literature.