{{Short description|British journalist and television presenter (1954–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Christopher Wenner | image = 2019-11-22 Christopher Wenner 3.jpg | caption = Wenner in 2019 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1954|12|6|df=yes}} | birth_place = Kensington, West London, England<ref name="horta">{{cite news |last1=Martins |first1=Filomeno |title=Horta: Max Stahl is forever part of our fighting story |url=http://www.tatoli.tl/en/2021/10/29/horta-max-stahl-is-forever-part-of-our-fighting-story/ |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=Tatoli |date=29 October 2021 |archive-date=31 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031035346/http://www.tatoli.tl/en/2021/10/29/horta-max-stahl-is-forever-part-of-our-fighting-story/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31">{{cite news |title=Obituary: Christopher Wenner, former Blue Peter presenter who became a war correspondent |url=https://www.independent.ie/news/obituary-christopher-wenner-former-blue-peter-presenter-who-became-a-war-correspondent-41000864.html |access-date=22 January 2022 |work=independent.ie |agency=Telegraph Media Group |date=31 October 2021}}</ref> | death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|10|28|1954|12|6|df=yes}} | death_place = Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | education = Stonyhurst College, Lancashire | alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford<ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31"/><ref name=":0" /> | birth_name = Max Christopher Wenner<ref name="bbcnews">{{cite news |title=Max Stahl: Blue Peter host and film-maker who captured East Timor struggle dies |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59075271 |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=BBC News |date=28 October 2021}}</ref> | other_names = Max Stahl<ref name="Lawson2012">{{cite book|author=Sylvia Lawson|author-link=Sylvia Lawson|title=Demanding the Impossible|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O55rSLX8IJ8C&pg=PA114|accessdate=9 January 2013|date=1 August 2012|publisher=Melbourne Univ. Publishing|isbn=978-0-522-85485-5|page=114}}</ref> | known_for = ''Blue Peter''<br/>''Channel 4 News'' (ITN)<br/>(international war coverage) | occupation = Television presenter<br/>War correspondent<br/>Journalist | citizenship = Timor-Leste (honorary)<ref name=":0" /> | spouse = | children = 4 | parents = | credits = }}
'''Max Christopher Wenner''', known as '''Christopher Wenner''' and later as '''Max Stahl'''<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JB4UBgAAQBAJ&dq=modern+genocide+max+stahl&pg=PA851|title=Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection [4 volumes]|author=Paul R. Bartrop|author2=Steven Leonard Jacobs|date=17 December 2014|publisher=Abc-Clio |isbn=9781610693646|accessdate=15 March 2016}}</ref> (6 December 1954 – 28 October 2021), was a British journalist and television presenter. He was best known for filming an East Timorese demonstration and its aftermath that became known as the Santa Cruz massacre. His coverage of East Timor's struggle for independence is listed in UNESCO's Memory of the World international register as a "turning point" in the birth of a new nation.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title=Christopher Wenner obituary|newspaper=The Times |language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/christopher-wenner-obituary-jl6zcn7sf|access-date=2022-02-23|issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
==Early life== Wenner was born in Kensington, West London, England.<ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31"/> He was the third of the four sons of Michael Alfred Wenner (1921–2020), a British author, company director, former diplomat who served as Ambassador to El Salvador (from 1967 to 1971),<ref name="obit">{{cite news |title=Captain Michael Wenner, wartime paratrooper, commando and later diplomat – obituary |url=https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/captain-michael-wenner-wartime-paratrooper-commando-and-later-diplomat-–-obituary/ar-BB1dhUOh |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=MSN |date=1 February 2020}}</ref> and Gunnilla Ståhle (1931–1986), who was Swedish.<ref name=NPG>{{cite web|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp142318/michael-alfred-wenner|title=Michael Alfred Wenner (information about Christopher Wenner near the end of the page)|work=National Portrait Gallery, London|accessdate=14 March 2016}}</ref> The surname he later used as a war correspondent was a variation on his mother's maiden name.<ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31"/>
==Education== Wenner was educated at Stonyhurst College,<ref name=SC>{{cite web|url=http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Stonyhurst-Association-Newsletter-306_July13.pdf|title=Stonyhurst Association News – Newsletter 306 – July 2013 – The Roar of the Greasepaint (page 15)|work=Stonyhurst College, Lancashire|date=July 2013|accessdate=14 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314141654/http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Stonyhurst-Association-Newsletter-306_July13.pdf|archive-date=14 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> a boarding independent school near Clitheroe in Lancashire, which he left in 1973,<ref name=SC/> followed by an English Language & Literature degree at Balliol College, Oxford,<ref name=":0" /> where he acted in the Dramatic Society.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/people/15994|title=Christopher Wenner|work=Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama|accessdate=14 March 2016}}</ref>
==Life and career== On 14 September 1978, Wenner joined the British children's television programme ''Blue Peter'', replacing John Noakes, who had left three months earlier. However, he left on 23 June 1980 (on the same day as his co-presenter Tina Heath), after the production team decided not to renew his contract as he was "deeply unpopular with the viewers."<ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31"/><ref>Marson, Richard. "Blue Peter" 50th Anniversary Book: The Story of Television's Longest-running Children's Programme. Hamlyn Books 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-600-61793-8}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
Wenner returned to acting, taking a part in the 1984 ''Doctor Who'' adventure ''The Awakening'', although in the final cut, his role was reduced to that of a non-speaking character. He then focused on journalism, although he returned to ''Blue Peter'' in 1983 and 1998 to celebrate the show's birthdays.<ref name=":0" />
In 1985, whilst working as a war correspondent in Beirut, he went missing; he turned up again, safe and well, after 18 days. He had been detained by militiamen for 24 hours who had warned him off reporting a story about the hashish trade, and he had gone into hiding in a friend's house.<ref name=":0" /> In 1991, he entered East Timor, then occupied by Indonesia, with the documentary maker Peter Gordon to film a diving video. There, he was informed that a pro-democracy demonstration would be taking place during a funeral at the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital, Dili. He shot footage of the demonstration, preceding and during what would become known as the Santa Cruz massacre. As soldiers advanced, in a well-organised operation against a huge crowd of East Timorese engaged in peaceful protest, he filmed inside the cemetery among the dead and the dying. To avoid confiscation of his footage, he then buried it in a grave. After being questioned for nine hours, he returned under cover of darkness to exhume the footage. It was that footage that brought the plight of the East Timorese to world attention. In 1992, Yorkshire Television's ''First Tuesday'' episode "Cold Blood – the Massacre of East Timor", produced by Gordon and co-directed by Gordon and Wenner, was awarded the Amnesty International UK Media Award.<ref name="i.ie 2021-10-31"/><ref name="1992ReutersInauguration001">{{cite press release | url=http://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1992/06/04/0013.html | title='Cold Blood' AI Winner | publisher=Reuters | date=4 June 1992 | accessdate=9 January 2013 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019135616/http://www.library.ohiou.edu/indopubs/1992/06/04/0013.html | url-status=dead | archivedate=19 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="1992OverallWinnerITN001">{{cite web|url=http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITVProgs/1992/01/07/Y05870109/ |title=FIRST TUESDAY (COLD BLOOD: THE MASSACRE OF EAST TIMOR) |publisher=ITN (Independent Television News) |accessdate=9 January 2013 |archivedate=19 October 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019111826/http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITVProgs/1992/01/07/Y05870109/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="InColdBloodBook 002">{{cite book|author1=Constâncio Pinto|author2=Matthew Jardine|title=East Timor's Unfinished Struggle: Inside the Timorese Resistance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdHlt6CSp54C&pg=PA270|year=1997|publisher=South End Press|isbn=978-0-89608-541-1|page=270}}</ref><ref name="acmi">{{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/86579--in-cold-blood-the-massacre-of-east-timor/ |title=In cold blood : the massacre of East Timor |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=22 January 2022 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}</ref>
In 1999, Wenner returned to East Timor under the name "Max Stahl". He entered the country covertly by hiring fishing boats, in order to avoid the Indonesian military.<ref name=":0" /> This time he filmed Indonesian-backed violence on women and children in a refugee camp.<ref name=":0" /> For his coverage, he won the 2000 Rory Peck Award for Hard News.<ref name="unesco">{{cite web |title=On the Birth of a Nation: Turning points |url=https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/birth-nation-turning-points |accessdate=2025-07-22 |publisher=UNESCO Memory of the World Programme}}</ref>
In 2013, Wenner's audiovisual material on East Timor's struggle for independence was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register as "On the birth of a nation: turning points".<ref name="unesco"/> The material is kept at the Max Stahl Audiovisual Centre for Timor-Leste ({{langx|pt|Centro Audiovisual Max Stahl em Timor-Leste}}) (CAMSTL). In December 2016, CAMSTL entered into a protocol with the National University of Timor-Leste and the University of Coimbra (UC) aimed at preserving the material in the form of an online image archive. In February 2019, Wenner gave a public presentation of the archive following its installation at the UC.<ref name="uc 2019-02-22">{{cite web |last1=Fernandes |first1=Francois |last2=Santos |first2=Milene |title=Universidade de Coimbra disponibiliza o arquivo de imagens do Centro Audiovisual Max Stahl Timor-Leste |trans-title=University of Coimbra provides the image archive of the Max Stahl Timor-Leste Audiovisual Center |url=https://noticias.uc.pt/artigos/universidade-de-coimbra-disponibiliza-o-arquivo-de-imagens-do-centro-audiovisual-max-stahl-timor-leste/?q=max%20stahl |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=pt |date=22 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="uc 2021-10-28">{{cite web |last1=Santos |first1=Milene |title=Morreu o jornalista Max Stahl que registou o massacre de Santa Cruz em Timor-Leste |trans-title=Journalist Max Stahl who recorded the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor has died |url=https://noticias.uc.pt/artigos/morreu-o-jornalista-max-stahl-que-registou-o-massacre-de-santa-cruz-em-timor-leste/ |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=pt |date=28 October 2021}}</ref> Since then, the archive has been accessible for research and educational projects.<ref name="uc camstl">{{cite web |title=CAMSTL: Max Stahl Audiovisual Centre for Timor-Leste |url=https://www.uc.pt/en/camstl |website=University of Coimbra |access-date=27 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
In December 2019, the National Parliament of Timor-Leste voted unanimously to grant Wenner Timorese citizenship in recognition of his role in the fight for Timorese liberation.<ref name="tvi24">{{cite news |title=Morreu Max Stahl, o jornalista que documentou o massacre no cemitério de Santa Cruz, em Díli |url=https://tvi24.iol.pt/internacional/27-10-2021/morreu-o-jornalista-max-stahl |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=TVI24 |date=27 October 2021 |language=pt}}</ref>
Wenner was one of the first Western journalists to recognize the scope of tensions in Chechnya. He travelled there with cameraman, filmmaker and author Peter Vronsky in 1992 to report on the break-away republic and nuclear weapons materials smuggling for the Canadian-produced television special ''The Hunt for Red Mercury''.
In 1998, whilst working as an ITN journalist for Channel 4, Wenner was beaten by Serb civilians during a mass protest.{{citation needed|date=August 2025}}
==Awards and honours== On 22 November 2019, Wenner was awarded the Order of Timor-Leste by President Francisco Guterres.<ref name="otl">{{cite news |last1=Baird |first1=Robert |title=Max Stahl awarded Highest Civilian Honour {{!}} TATOLI Agência Noticiosa de Timor-Leste |url=http://www.tatoli.tl/en/2019/11/25/max-stahl-awarded-highest-civilian-honour/ |access-date=28 October 2021 |work=Tatoli |date=25 November 2019}}</ref> In 2000 he won the Rory Peck award for his reports.<ref name=":0" />
==Personal life== Wenner was a father of four, and ran his own production company while continuing his career in journalism. In April 2012, it was reported that he had been receiving treatment for throat cancer. On 28 October 2021, the President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, announced that Wenner had died from cancer at a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, at the age of 66.<ref name="tvi24" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/bluepeter/presenters/wenner.shtml BBC – I Love Blue Peter – Christopher Wenner presenter biography]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenner, Christopher}} Category:1954 births Category:2021 deaths Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Category:British children's television presenters Category:Deaths from cancer in Queensland Category:English male journalists Category:English people of Swedish descent Category:East Timorese journalists Category:Journalists from London Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College Category:People from Kensington Category:Recipients of the Order of Timor-Leste Category:British expatriates in Timor-Leste