New ‘criminals’?

In chapter 17 in Breen’s "Journalism: theory and practice" book, the writer Henningham said, when he wrote this in 1998, that journalists were 4,500 in Australia. Yesterday I was looking through websites for a count of journalists now (I expected a lot more because population has grown so much), and I found an article on the MEAA website titled "Australia criminalises journalism". It was dated 3 May this year and I hadn't read it before now. 

Paragraph 2 of the article said: "How else can you explain how a draft law could be introduced into the Parliament that would allow for journalists to be locked up for 20 years for reporting information in the public interest? In the name of keeping the people safe, the Government now wants to keep information hidden from view, and punish the whistleblowers who disclose the information and the journalists who work with them." This, for me and so many journalists and so many other people, this alleged law change is absolutely unacceptable!

I posted this article on the Discussion Board of the course I am doing for journalism. I felt that anyone doing that course – or anyone who is a journalist – should read it. And read anything else that this government has done to journalism. There is also a pdf file called “Criminalising Journalism - the MEAA report into the state of press freedom in Australia in 2018”. You can download that here. 

I have a lot of information that supports what MEAA said:

• The Australian Press council (19 September 2016): “Investigative journalism in Australia has suffered repeated blows in recent times, with overly broad anti-terrorism laws potentially ensnaring reporters covering security matters; a declining commitment to Freedom of Information; laws criminalising some forms of whistleblowing; metadata retention laws further discouraging public interest disclosures to journalists; and a worrying tendency to use the full force of the law to track down the source of merely embarrassing leaks.” 

• Article by Sal Humphreys and Melissa de Zwart (6 April 2017): “As members of the ‘fourth estate’, journalists have enjoyed certain limited protections for themselves and their sources under the laws of various countries. These protections are now uniquely challenged in the context of metadata retention and enhanced surveillance and national security protections.” 
• Free Speech by Tech Dirt (14 December 2017): whistleblowers will “expose unsuspected activities that powerful people were trying to keep in the shadows”, which is why the Australian government wants to introduce 20 years jail. 
• SBS (30 January 2018): “Universities Australia acting chief executive Catriona Jackson said collaborations with international academics and funding sources would be under threat if the draft legislation passed.”
• The Conversation (1 February 2018): “Our main conclusions are that the current fear-driven security environment has made it much harder for investigative journalists to hold governments and security agencies to account. This is partly due to anti-terror and security laws making it harder for whistleblowers to act.”
• Lifehacker (2 February 2018): “The bill has been heavily criticised by Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and major media organisations for being too heavy-handed and far-reaching in the limits it would place on freedom of expression and several other civil liberties.”
• Sydney Morning Herald (3 February 2018): “…the federal government introduced legislation to Parliament concerning "espionage and foreign interference". Buried among hyperbole about the rise of foreign influence was schedule 2, which introduced the most significant reform of Australia's official secrecy laws in a century.” 

There are many, many others writing about this. Daily Telegraph did, but it required a subscriber to pay to read – which I won’t. Probably many others like them. So what is wrong with what the LNP is suggesting to change the law which will possibly gaol journalists? Why is that suggested? Why did they thought at all that changing that law would protect… us?

Personally, I believe this government is doing it to protect themselves: protect the donors to their party, protect their ministers when they are offered a benefit that no-one else in the country would receive, to protect the public from the lies the LNP often tell. That is my own personal opinion, and I don’t feel bad at all about saying that, because I have seen too many lies from this government and too many people who have been hurt.

MEAA’s campaigns on their website include Make it Australian, Hands off our ABC, Sexual Harassment in the Spotlight, Get Real on Rates, Press Freedom, Media Safety & Solidarity Fund, Women in Media, and Ethical Internships. Recently I had started a blog called “Women in Politics” but I hadn’t finished that before reading the MEAA article. The Women in Media campaign says: “Women in Media (WiM) is a nationwide MEAA initiative for women working in all facets of the media – from journalism and media advisory work to public relations and corporate affairs” and that “Women in Media benefits tremendously from the work of our state committees, workplace committees, mentors and guest speakers”. 

I looked at the MEAA membership and found that, as a student, I can join as a student for a lot less than professional writers pay, and students get many benefits too. And yet, if this law changes to mute journalists, what is the point of writing? 

This country needs to be aware of what LNP is doing against us. And yes, that is all of us.

Henningham, John (1998), “The Australian journalist” in Myles Breen (ed), Journalism: Theory and Practice. Paddington, NSW: Macleay Press.