- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
Canberra’s secrecy obsession feeds on security fears
Posted By Graeme Dobell on October 28, 2019 @ 06:00
– The right to contest the application for warrants for journalists and media organisations;
– Exemptions for journalists from laws that would put them in jail for doing their jobs, including security laws enacted over the last seven years;
– Public sector whistle-blowers must be adequately protected—the current law needs to change;
– A new regime that limits which documents can be stamped secret;
– A properly functioning freedom of information (FOI) regime; and
– Defamation law reform.
Australia leads the world in enacting national security and counter-terrorism laws. About 75 have been passed by our federal parliament since September 11, 2001. This far exceeds the number of similar laws passed by Britain and the US. Our laws also differ because they go further in heightening government secrecy. They represent an assault on freedom of the press unique to Australia.
Australia has a statute book littered with laws that enable sources to be identified, whistleblowers to be shut down and journalists to be jailed. Time after time when politicians were questioned about these laws, they said that they would not be used against the media.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/canberras-secrecy-obsession-feeds-on-security-fears/
[1] nobody is above the law: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/common-sense-changes-media-companies-reject-claim-they-want-to-be-above-the-law-20191022-p5334u.html
[2] nation having a conversation with itself: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00007862
[3] black out their front pages: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-21/media-unites-to-rally-for-press-freedom/11621806
[4] culture of secrecy: https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-culture-of-secrecy-what-is-the-right-to-know-campaign-about-20191018-p5323v.html
[5] ‘Your right to know campaign’: https://yourrighttoknow.com.au/media-freedom/
[6] suite of reforms: https://yourrighttoknow.com.au/media-freedom/get-the-facts/
[7] ‘polarisation’ and ‘a war of left versus right’: https://theconversation.com/mixed-media-how-australias-newspapers-became-locked-in-a-war-of-left-versus-right-79001
[8] ‘deep rupture in the relationship between government and media’: https://theconversation.com/australian-governments-have-long-been-hostile-to-media-freedom-thats-unlikely-to-change-any-time-soon-125565
[9] Professor George Williams: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/australia-is-a-worldbeater-in-the-secrecy-olympics/news-story/e4709f4456f4fe4f87c25a6ce34ebf41
[10] anti-terror laws since 2001 at 82: https://theconversation.com/australia-has-enacted-82-anti-terror-laws-since-2001-but-tough-laws-alone-cant-eliminate-terrorism-123521
[11] raided Parliament House in 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/24/police-to-raid-parliament-house-department-over-nbn-leak-says-stephen-conroy
[12] pleading for special privileges: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/journalisms-role-must-be-protected/news-story/446a17fb89edc9041be84746d1394ad6#_=_
[13] media freedom act: https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-a-media-freedom-act-heres-how-it-could-work-125315
[14] constitutional recognition to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/about-constitutional-recognition