Australian War Memorial Council chair Kim Beazley has defended the controversial decision not to award a prestigious book prize to Chris Masters, declaring the decision had nothing to do with the fact that the veteran journalist’s book was about war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

Beazley claimed the war memorial had not retrospectively changed the entry rules for the Les Carlyon Literary Prize to block Masters from winning, despite leaked emails showing the memorial’s governing council overruled its own judges’ verdict that Masters’ book, Flawed Hero, was the best entry.

Masters’ book examines Roberts-Smith’s actions in Afghanistan and subsequent efforts by his fellow soldiers to hold him to account.

Media mogul Kerry Stokes, a donor to the literary prize and a former chair of the memo

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