Media chiefs urge government to overhaul laws to protect journalists, whistleblowers

Top media chiefs urge government to overhaul national security laws to protect journalists, whistleblowers.

ABC. Managing Director David Anderson, Executive Chairman, Australasia of News Corp, Michael Miller and CEO of Nine, Hugh Marks were speaking at the National Press Club today. Picture John Feder.

Australia’s most powerful media executives have urged the Morrison Government to overhaul laws relating to national security and the issuing of warrants as well as changes to Freedom of Information to further protect journalists and whistleblowers from police investigations and prosecutions.

In a rare display of unity at the National Press Club in Canberra this afternoon, News Corp Australasia executive chairman, Michael Miller, Nine chief executive, Hugh Marks and ABC managing director, David Anderson, said legislative change was needed to expand media freedom, and to reset the balance between national security and the public’s right to know.

The speeches follow Australian Federal Police Raids on News Corp journalist ­Annika Smethurst and the ABC.

“The confronting raids on ABC and News Corp have served at least one useful purpose, exposing the extent of deterioration in our public discourse,” Mr Anderson said in an opening speech.

“This reform must identify the areas where the balance between the public right to information and other priorities, like national security, has tipped too far.”

In a separate speech, Mr Miller described the raids as an act of “intimidation”, rather than investigation.

“These raids put our democracy in danger, they put our right to be informed in danger and they put people who talk to journalists in danger,” Mr Miller said.

The chairman also demanded the right to contest search warrants before they are issued, protections for whistle blowers and limitations on documents which can be stamped Secret, from the Morrison Government.

“We need a proper review of Freedom of Information laws,” Mr Miller added.

“And finally, journalists must be exempted from the national security laws enacted over the last seven years that put can put them in jail for just doing their jobs.”

Although Nine has not been raided by the AFP, Mr Marks shared the concerns of Mr Anderson and Mr Miller about freedom of information and protection for whistleblowers, issues with defamation law.

“Much too often these days the words ‘national security’ are conveniently invoked as a means of shutting down the flow of information and debate on the most spurious grounds,” Mr Marks said.

“Media freedom is also impacted by the huge rise in the granting of, and lack of transparency in relation to, suppression orders. And the complexity of access to information under FOI laws,” he added.

Earlier this week, News Corp, publisher of The Australian, said it would challenge the validity of the AFP Raid in the High Court. The media company has not yet filed the case, but will argue the raids were invalid on the basis of “implied right of political communication”. The ABC has also filed a claim in the Federal Court challenging the AFP Raids on its Sydney headquarters, where officers took material away in USBs relating to an investigation known as “Afghan Files”.

“It is vital that we work collectively to stiffen protections for those who seek to come forward, particularly in the public sector,” Mr Anderson said.

“Quarantining national security and law enforcement information from the ambit of whistleblowing laws does nothing to promote confidence in public administration. There is no justice in prosecuting whistleblowers or sources when the public has a legitimate right to the information.”