Press Freedom Inquiry: Australians’ right to information threatened by growing government secrecy
Vital information you deserve to know is being withheld by a growing ‘culture of secrecy’. Now Australia’s media giants want change.
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Australians are being robbed of their right to know about vital issues that directly affect them by “culture of secrecy” in the Australian government, and draconian laws which threaten whistleblowers and criminalise journalism, a Senate committee heard today.
And the shroud of secrecy was only getting worse, the Press Freedom Inquiry heard, with whistleblowers being deliberately “intimidated” by raids, and journalists left not knowing whether they would be criminally prosecuted for months after their homes and workplaces had been raided by Australian Federal Police.
Six media organisations, including the ABC, Nine, and News Corp, appeared at the first public hearing of the inquiry yesterday, appealing for urgent legal reform to protect whistleblowers, limit documents that can be “stamped secret,” and allow them to contest warrants against journalists before a judge.
Nine chief political editor Chris Uhlmann told the Senate Committee that Australia’s approach to press freedom had “always been pretty bad,” with newsrooms raided and journalists criminally prosecuted for refusing to name their sources.
But Mr Uhlmann said protection for the public’s right to know was “getting steadily worse,” with more information classified as secret, and government promises to protect public interest reporting being broken.
Examples included fresh secrecy around boat arrivals in Australia, he said, more Freedom of Information documents being redacted, and even the Federal Government’s refusal to detail how much it was paying The Block host Scott Cam to act as national careers ambassador.
“We asked the question as to how much he was getting paid and we’ve been told it’s commercial-in-confidence,” Mr Uhlmann said.
“That is literally ludicrous application of that law. That information should be publicly available because taxpayers need to know how they’re money’s being spent.”
ABC news director Gaven Morris said Federal Police raids on his newsroom just days after another at the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst were deliberately designed to intimidate whistleblowers and prevent them from exposing misconduct, corruption, or exploitation.
“There was a message being sent to potential whistleblowers and it had a very potent impact,” Mr Morris said.
“Journalists will have a second thought but then get on with their job. A whistleblower will have a second thought and turn the other way.”
Nine group executive editor James Chessell said repercussions of the raids were already being felt, with one whistleblower telling a reporter they were “freaked out” by the raids before withdrawing from a story.
Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance chief executive Paul Murphy said many other journalists told him “that they’ve lost sources, that they’ve lost stories” after the action because whistleblowers felt threatened.
“It’s critical to remember the role of whistleblowers … because if sources dry up, public interest journalism really struggles,” he said.
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News Corp corporate affairs, policy and government relations group executive Campbell Reid warned the increasing efforts by government officials to withhold information from the public could have a devastating effect at all levels of the community.
“This place has the role of setting the example for the nation in terms of right to know,” he said.
“This culture of secrecy resonates all the way down to directly touching people’s lives in school communities.”
Mr Reid said the Morrison Government needed to make urgent legal reforms to protect the public’s right to information and to ensure freedom of the press in Australia.
“There is now an opportunity to go back and look at those laws, take a breath, fresh set of eyes, and say actually several of these go too far,” he said.
In a submission to the Inquiry, 14 media organisations argued for six main changes to protect public interest journalism, including the right to contest warrants against journalists and media organisations, protection for public sector whistleblowers, changes to Freedom of Information and defamation laws, limits for restricting government documents, and protection for journalists threatened with jail for doing their jobs.
The Senate Press Freedom Inquiry is expected to publish its findings in March 2020.
The report will follow a related inquiry by the Australian parliament which is due by November 28.
Originally published as Press Freedom Inquiry: Australians’ right to information threatened by growing government secrecy