An award-winning journalist who wrote a book about the war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith has been uninvited from delivering an annual military history lecture due to fears by the organisers that it would jeopardise any future commercial relationship with the powerful Australian War Memorial.

Chris Masters was invited last month to deliver the 2026 CEW Bean lecture in what the organisers hoped would provide a retort to the war memorial’s intervention to remove his book Flawed Hero: Truth, Lies and War Crimes from contention for the Les Carlyon Literary Prize.

But in an incident that prompted the departure of its highest-profile historian, the non-profit group that organises the annual lecture rescinded the invitation due to concerns by the managers of the historic homestead where they oper

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