Australia is the world’s only liberal democracy without constitutional protection for press freedom. We believe media freedom needs to be enshrined in law to protect the rights of journalists. But if they have rights, they also have responsibilities. That is why our plan to establish a professional association is such an important part of our model for change.
Introduction
Australia is the world’s only democracy without press freedom explicitly written into it. And since 9/11, Australia has produced more national security legislation than any other country on earth – more than 90 separate laws to date. In the absence of that constitutional restraint, many of those laws limit journalists’ ability to investigate the government and protect their sources.
At the same time, public confidence in journalism has sunk to an all-time low. The annual Edelman Trust Barometer says the media is the least trusted institution in Australia, well behind government, business and NGOs. Part of that decline is driven by a slide in journalism’s professional ethics and standards.
These sliding standards and government overreach is diminishing the media’s ability to hold the government to account, further eroding trust in journalism and democracy more broadly.
Our model includes a Media Freedom Act to restore legal protections; and a professional association to tackle declining standards.
The Media Freedom Act
Our Media Freedom Act address four key points.
They are:
- As a core legal principle, Media Freedom is to be protected. No part of Australia’s legal framework explicitly establishes this principle. Our draft does that clearly and simply.
- The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (PJCHR) to monitor legislation for compatibility with press freedom principles. The PJCHR already routinely assesses new legislation, but our MFA explicitly requires impact reports to make sure legislation does not unnecessarily impacting media freedom. And if there is a cost to media freedom, there must be a clear explanation about why it is necessary.
- The courts are to interpret Commonwealth legislation in line with media freedom principles. In any case that involves media freedom, the courts have an obligation to weigh up the public interest in the work of a journalist, alongside the public interest in any prosecution. Media freedom may not always win that argument, but it must be considered.
- Journalists must have the right to challenge search warrants on public interest grounds. We have lifted a section from the UK’s Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Act that gives journalists the right to challenge warrants before they are even issued. This right is uncontroversial in the UK, and we believe it can work equally well here.
We know that enacting the MFA won’t solve all the problems facing the media industry, but it offers a comprehensive set of reforms that would improve transparency and trust in journalism, and raise ethical and professional standards.
Learn more about the Media Freedom Act
But who gets this protection?
Our current forms of regulation target professional journalists who work for large publishers, or the publishers themselves. That no longer works in a digital world, anybody with a smart phone can produce ‘journalism-like’ content.
Instead of asking “who is a journalist?” we believe the better approach is “what is journalism?”
We think of it as a process of gathering, organising, and presenting information according to an accepted code of ethics and professional standards.
We believe that journalists should establish a professional association to design those standards and admit anybody – regardless of employment status or job title – who agrees to apply them to their work.
Crucially, the courts could use membership to assess whether a journalist is able to claim the protection of the Media Freedom Act.
Learn more about Journalism Australia
But what about those who don't sign up?
Nothing in our model should impact on anybody’s free speech. Membership of Journalism Australia is not mandatory.
Anybody who is not a member would still be able to claim protection under the Media Freedom Act, as long as they are able to show their work meets the professional standards.