Hugo Kelly

Hugo Kelly (b. 29 April 1967) is an Australian journalist. He is most notable for his contributions to independent online Australian news service, Crikey, from which he was sacked in February, 2006.

Early life and education
Hugo Kelly, born in London, is the son of Melbourne-born Elizabeth Kelly, and South African lawyer Beverly Botha. At three, he and his mother moved to Australia. Kelly attended Sunshine West Primary School and Essendon Grammar. He studied journalism at RMIT and Arts at the University of Melbourne and later undertook postgraduate studies in Media at Monash University.

Media career
Early media career
Aged 17, Kelly was offered a cadetship at The Age. There, he worked with Sports editor Michael Gordon. At the Canberra bureau of The Age, he worked with Michelle Grattan. In May 1988, he interviewed the Queen of Australia during her visit to inaugurate the new Parliament House. He was later promoted to C-grading and a post as The Ages transport reporter. He covered the 1989 tram strike and he was at the Aérospatiale tent when a Russian MiG 29 fighter jet crashed just 100 metres away, which he subsequently reported on.

1999 Victorian election
In 1999 Kelly assisted a former Age colleague Stephen Mayne to nominate as an independent candidate in Victorian Liberal Party leader Jeff Kennett's then safe seat of Burwood. Part of the campaign strategy was a website, jeffed.com, in which Mayne, a former Kennett advisor, outlined his criticisms of the Kennett government. The campaign was abruptly aborted when Mayne was ruled ineligible to stand by the Australian Electoral Commission, but work continued on the website and it played a minor role in the surprise defeat of the Kennett government that year .

Crikey tenure
On 14 February 2000, Stephen Mayne launched the Crikey website, with Kelly contributing. Kelly opened Crikey's Parliament House bureau in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2004 and continued to contribute regularly until 13 February 2006, when he was sacked, according to Eric Beecher "because of his unprofessionalism as a journalist".

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