When we speak of media freedom, we generally mean it in terms of freedom from unnecessary legal restrictions, so journalists and their sources are not threatened with prosecution for exposing the misdeeds of governments. But yesterday’s announcement by Meta (Facebook’s parent company) that it will stop paying for Australian news content poses a different kind of threat to media freedom….
In 2019, the New York Times declared that “Australia may well be the world’s most secretive democracy”. The Times published the piece shortly after the Australian Federal Police raided journalists from two news organisations, searching for evidence of sources for stories that were embarrassing to the government. Four years on, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus today released a comprehensive review of secrecy…
It’s more than eight years since the heady days that followed my release from Egypt on terrorism charges back in 2015. At the time, I was hugely relieved to be at home, in a country that seemed committed to media freedom. You’ll appreciate that after Egypt, that mattered a lot to me. As the dust settled, I began to think…
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Gaza-Israel war has been the deadliest conflict for media workers since the organisation began counting statistics in 1992. At the time of writing, the committee said at least 39 journalists and media workers had been killed in the month since the war began. Reporters Without Borders put the number slightly higher at…
AJF’s idea for a National Working Group is designed to help maintain the integrity of Australia’s security, while protecting press freedom.
Sometimes it takes deeply shocking events to remind us why we need certain social institutions to work freely and effectively. We’re now not just having a pandemic, but we’ve also had a drought and a catastrophic bushfire season to underscore – in red ink – just how important it is to have a well-resourced and genuinely free media that does…
A free press is not about special treatment for the media, but ensuring our governments are held to account, writes Professor Peter Greste. The ABC’s failed court bid is yet another blow — and we should all be worried. On Monday, the Federal Court issued a judgment that I suspect will come to be seen as a pivotal moment…
This article was originally published in The Australian. In the debates on press freedom, a lot of the media’s critics tend to dismiss journalists as pleading for special privileges. “No one is above (the law), including me or anyone else, any journalist or anyone else,” Scott Morrison said, anticipating the Right to Know coalition’s campaign calling for legislative changes to…
