had been a branch president. By 2004, having long since abandoned the ALP, he had become a member of the Liberal Party. In 2004, Flint resigned from the ABA, after a controversy over a letter which he had sent to broadcaster Alan Jones soon after his appointment and well before the lead-up to his heading the ABA's cash for comment inquiry into commercial broadcasting. The letter mentioned an international affairs seminar where Paul Kelly, a leading journalist with The Australian, had stressed the influence of Alan Jones' radio programme. When a controversy later arose about the direct sponsorship of commercial radio presenters, Flint announced that he would ask the ABA board to set up a public inquiry, which board members unanimously agreed to. As chairman of the ABA, Flint was chairman of the inquiry. In an appearance years later on the ABC television program Enough Rope, prominent Sydney broadcaster John Laws accused Alan Jones of placing pressure on John Howard (prime minister since 1996) to keep Flint as head of the ABA. Laws said he had heard Jones say that he had "instructed" Howard to reappoint Flint in 2001. Flint insisted that his resignation was "not an admission of guilt", and asserted that he had forgotten the letter, one of a large number which he had written. Furthermore, Flint alleged that, despite a thorough Freedom of Information investigation, hostile sections of the media had inflated the one letter into a "series of fan letters". The television program Media Watch, whose pursuit of the story was recognised by a Walkley Award for investigative journalism, claimed that it had provided an opportunity for Flint to unambiguously deny the existence of more than one letter. According to Media Watch, Flint's reply "did not deny the existence of the correspondence". Flint asserted that Laws was mistaken in his belief that anti-Laws sentiments on his part had led to recent ABA action against Laws. On the contrary, Flint stated in his book Malice in Media Land that he had defended Laws at the ABA, and had opposed the authority's decision to proceed against Laws, believing that the decision was both unjustified and unlawful. Honours Flint was awarded World Outstanding Legal Scholar, World Jurists Association, Barcelona, in October 1991. On 12 June 1995, was made a Member of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the print media, particularly as Chairman of the Australian