Bill Leak cartoon probe biggest threat to press freedom: Stokes

Media proprietor Kerry Stokes has attacked an AHRC investigation into a cartoon by Bill Leak.

Seven Group executive chairman Kerry Stokes says the Leak probe was the ‘most substantial threat’ to press freedom in his five decades of owning and running media businesses.

Media proprietor Kerry Stokes has launched a blistering attack on a controversial ­investigation by the Australian Human Rights Commission over a cartoon by The Australian’s Bill Leak portraying an Aboriginal father and son.

Mr Stokes, the Seven Group executive chairman, said the probe was the “most substantial threat” to press freedom in his five decades of owning and running media businesses.

One of the problems with the law was its “vagueness”, Mr Stokes said, which left the community uncertain about what could or could not be said, without inviting a complaint to the Human Rights ­Commission.

Mr Stokes spoke out after The Australian and Leak were put on ­notice that they were being ­investigated for alleged racial ­hatred under the Racial Discrimination Act for a cartoon ­depicting the neglect of an indig­enous child by his father.

It was published on August 4 after the airing of video from the Northern Territory’s Don Dale detention centre of indigenous youths being treated in an aggressive manner by guards.

Leak’s hard-hitting cartoon made the point that the youths were in detention partly because they did not have responsible ­parents.

“It (section 18C) is the worst ­because it isn’t definable,” Mr Stokes said yesterday.

“It’s so difficult to define because it’s so broad. It snuck through under the Labor government when none of us were really aware of the wider ranging implications of it.”

Under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, it is unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or ­intimidate people on the basis of their race, colour or national or ethnic background.

“The fact is that under 18C none of us can write or say what needs to be said to make the public fully aware of the issues,” Mr Stokes warned, saying he has “great ­admiration for the courage The Australian has shown to publish such a powerful piece of social commentary”.

Mr Stokes, whose mining and media company operates the top-rating free-to-air Seven Network and The West Australian newspaper, said the decision to publish the cartoon was “appropriate” to bring the issue to the “wider attention of the public” as part of a broader campaign to highlight the “seriousness of the situation”.

The West Australian has shone a light on social dysfunction and juvenile lawlessness in Perth with a series of articles, cartoons and ­social commentary, while also highlighting achievements in the indigenous community.