Peter Greste spent 400 days in jail. Now he wants a register for journalists in Australia

Former journalist Peter Greste spent 400 days in an Egyptian jail on terrorism charges while working for news outlet Al Jazeera. Now, he has co-founded Journalism Australia, a body he hopes can define professional journalism, journalistic standards and press freedom in Australia.

The move goes hand in hand with a proposed bill by the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, where he is the executive director, alongside chair Peter Wilkinson, a lobbyist and former journalist. The “media reform bill” proposes enshrining press freedoms in Australia’s constitution.

Journalism Australia co-founder Peter Greste says the member-based group would recognise quality reporting.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Journalism Australia aims to become a professional association that recognises ethics, standards and processes to address public trust and confidence in media, Greste says.

Under his plan, “member journalists” would pay to register and become part of Journalism Australia if they met certain standards. In return, they would gain the protections offered under the bill. Defining member journalists would help law enforcement agencies and courts identify who is producing trusted journalism to a particular standard, according to documentation seen by this masthead.

Greste says non-members would not be shut out and could still claim journalists’ privilege, “but they’ve got more work to do to show that their work makes the grade”.

Journalism Australia has attracted some industry criticism from figures privy to the plan, including the journalists union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), which believes the group should not be able to create two classes of reporters and define what and who falls under the definition.

“It is critical that these decisions are made by industry peers who understand firsthand the challenges of journalism in Australia,” says Karen Percy, media president for the MEAA.

She says the bill would not provide solutions to the real and ongoing issues journalists face, such as defamation laws, restrictive Freedom of Information processes and court suppression orders.

“These are critical concerns that continue to limit journalists’ ability to report freely and effectively every day in serving the public’s right to know,” she says.

While Greste says Journalism Australia and the bill are not intrinsically linked, they enhance, support and amplify each other.

“In simplest terms, [the bill] is providing a positive obligation to always factor in public interest journalism at every stage of the process, whether it’s in drafting laws or interpreting laws,” Greste says, noting Australia is the only liberal democracy without press freedom as part of its constitution.

With a constitutional amendment unlikely, a parliamentary act is a more feasible, similar to the Human Rights Acts in several states, he says.

Journalism Australia Limited was registered with the Australian corporate register in July, listing Greste, Wilkinson and executive director of The Ethics Centre, Simon Longstaff, as its directors.

Senior journalists from Nine, the ABC and others, media lawyers, and former national security staff were invited to an event in Sydney in July, where plans for the bill and the new body were unveiled.

Peter Greste inside a defendants’ cage in an Egypt courtroom during his trial in 2014.Credit: AP

As it was under Chatham House rules, no attendees were willing to speak on the record about it. However, a number of attendees said there was debate over deciding the terms of a journalist.

Journalism Australia members would be able to add a “badge” beside their bylines to indicate the reporting was produced by a journalist accountable to a code of conduct, Greste says.

“We can badge your work because we think that there’s a problem of public trust and public confidence, and part of that problem comes from the fact that everything online looks much the same.”

The proposal solves the “Assange problem” of defining what constitutes journalism and journalists, he says. While he celebrated Julian Assange’s release from prison in the UK, Greste has said WikiLeaks should not be classified as journalism.

“We think the key defining element is the process you used, that you apply, that lies behind your work, because that’s what sets journalism apart,” he said.

It should not be defined by the position or organisation, rather the process of gathering, verifying and presenting information, he says.

But some at the event also privately raised concerns about the two-class structure this would create.

“I wouldn’t call it two classes of journalists. I mean explicitly, it does [create two classes], in the sense that we’ve got a definition for what we call a member journalist and non-member journalists, but I certainly feel comfortable with the idea of providing upward pressure on people to make sure their work falls on the right side of that line,” Greste says.

Lawyer, publisher and former Media Watch host Richard Ackland says giving badges or medals to “approved” journalists “is an inherently bad idea”.

The lack of current, firsthand involvement in media and journalism from the organisation’s three directors has also been flagged as a concern.

Greste, now an adjunct professor of journalism at Macquarie University, has not worked in the industry for over a decade, while Wilkinson has not practiced journalism for more than two decades.

However, Greste says they are looking for more directors, and plan to pull together a cohort of other journalists to get on board.

“I’m not saying that we should be the ones behind it. It’s just that what we’ve done is thought quite deeply about it and felt that there’s a need and a value in something like this and proposing it,” he says.

While Percy says the MEAA, and the AJA before it, has 100 years of working with Australian journalists, upholding its own code of ethics, and advocating for media freedom, Greste argues the union’s primary role is to represent its members in industrial matters.

“It’s not to hold its members accountable. It has the Ethics Committee [...] I won’t call it ineffective, but it’s been reasonably inactive. There are very few examples where it’s held members to account,” Greste says.

“To become a member of MEAA, all you have to do is pay your dues. There’s no professional standards test.”

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