We're the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom

We believe Parliament must introduce a Media Freedom Act. The Act should work in ways similar to the Human Rights Acts in Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT: that parliament must always consider human rights in passing any new legislation; that where possible, the courts must always interpret existing legislation in ways that are consistent with human rights; and that public servants must act to support human rights. Applied to media freedom, this approach would inject a positive legal obligation to consider media freedom in ways not currently available.  

Our draft act includes a rebuttable presumption that anyone producing journalism according to a set of professional standards deserves protection under the law. The burden of proof would fall to the investigating agencies to show that a journalist had failed in their professional obligations before they could obtain a search warrant.  

A big obstacle to passing media freedom laws has been identifying that which deserves protection. In a world where anyone with a mobile phone is capable of producing journalism–like content, and where ‘citizen journalists’ claim as much legitimacy as traditional reporters in mainstream newsrooms, defining ‘who is a journalist’ no longer makes any sense. 

Instead, the AJF believes the solution is to focus on the methods used to create information that serves the media’s Fourth Estate role. That is why we have chosen to define journalism as a process – a systematic way of gathering, organising and presenting information according to a generally accepted code of ethics and professional standards. Our definition requires accountability to that code, through an independent complaints process.  

Most professions have some kind of industry body that upholds standards and holds their members to account. Australian journalism has no such organisation.  

Our process definition creates an opportunity for industry to respond by using it as the basis for membership to a national association. It could admit those who show they know and understand journalistic methods, ethics and standards, and apply them routinely to their work.  

Such a system of voluntary membership does not stop anyone from publishing. It merely helps recognise those who meet the required standard. Members could badge their work, distinguishing it from other content that may not make the grade, social media companies could use membership as a way of identifying quality content and boosting it up the rankings. And crucially, the courts could use membership as evidence that a person’s work should be treated as journalism and therefore deserves the protection of the Media Freedom Act. Nobody is necessarily excluded from legal cover, but the onus is on anyone who is not a member to demonstrate that they are working to the required standards.