Morrison accused of hypocrisy on writer

Scott Morrison has been accused of hypocrisy by one of News Corp Australia’s most senior figures.

News Corp Australia group executive of corporate and government ­affairs Campbell Reid at the Press Freedom Hearing, Sydney. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Scott Morrison has been accused of hypocrisy by one of News Corp Australia’s most senior figures, who says the Prime Minister’s concerns over the treatment of writer Yang Hengjun in China don’t match with concerns for press freedom at home.

Campbell Reid, News Corp Australia’s group executive of corporate and government ­affairs, has questioned why Mr Morrison is concerned by Mr Yang’s incarceration as an “away game” but not by the treatment of journalists in Australia.

“I saw Mr Morrison in front of the microphones talking very compellingly about the predicament the Australian writer in China is in,” Mr Reid told the Allianc­e for Journalists’ Freedom summit in Sydney yesterday.

“Under arrest, accused of espionage, so I ask this question: why is press freedom very important, and freedom of information important, in China and not very important in Australia?”

Mr Reid was commenting on the government’s reaction to Australian Federal Police raids on the Canberra home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s Sydney headquarters in early June.

ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose told the conference she was baffled­ as to why the raids took place, pointing out they could lead to an ABC journalist being jailed for up to 10 years with the stories still publicly available.

“I have never seen anything like it before … and I do really question what the raid was about.

“The Afghan Files are still online­ but two years later the ABC is raided … Dan Oakes could go to jail for 10 years for receiving allegedly stolen information under the Crimes Act,” she said.

Mr Reid and Ms Buttrose agreed that the AFP raids were about intimidating potential whistle­blowers not to come ­forward. “What’s the motivation here … it’s to intimidate people,” he said. “And to intimidate not the reporter or the news organisation, but to intimidate people who might dare raise the alarm.”

Ms Buttrose also said the raids were about “going after the whistleblower’’, who “knows they might lose their job, their money, even their family. And they might prosecute you.”

Mr Reid, who is responsible for dealing with government on behalf of News, publisher of The Australian, told the summit he feared the current parliament­ary inquiry into press freedom would end up like previous parliamentary inquiries that achieved very little. “Those of us … who have made endless treks to Canberra to appear before the likes of the very committee we’ve been invited to in recent times, well could we have the money for our airfares back please, because we have been clearly wasting our time.”

Mr Reid said it was ridiculous to accuse media organisations of failing to articulate the problem on press freedom when it had been something he and others had been saying for years.

“We’ve been going down there wearing ourselves hoarse, saying ‘these laws go too far, these laws go too far’,” Mr Reid said. “Suddenly we find ourselves in this position where we’re being accused of not trying hard enough. Therefore why are we appearing before this current committee?”

Mr Reid said he thought the current inquiry was “going through the motions”.