Going After Whistleblowers, Going After Journalism
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GOING AFTER WHISTLEBLOWERS, GOING AFTER JOURNALISM THE REPORT INTO THE STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA IN 2015 GOING AFTER WHISTLEBLOWERS, GOING AFTER JOURNALISM THE REPORT INTO THE STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA IN 2015 page 2 page 3 Contents ForeworD his has been a dire 12 months for the state of by the government. It will still allow a journalists’ press freedom in Australia — for journalists, for metadata to be accessed to identify a journalist’s 3 ForeWord 49 PUBLIC BroadCastinG the communities we serve and for sources that sources, and the journalist and their media Paul Murphy Australian broadcasting sounds trust us to tell their stories. organisation will never know access was granted. the retreat as Canberra’s cuts T Nor will they be able to argue the public interest in bite deep On October 30 last year, Attorney-General George protecting the identity of a whistleblower. 4 There IS NO neutral TURF, Quentin Dempster Brandis admitted that the controversial section there IS NO safe GROUND 35P of the Government’s first tranche of national In short, the three tranches of national security Peter Greste 52 Press freedom AND security laws was written with the aim of targeting legislation passed by the Parliament represent Australians ABroad whistleblowers. “It was primarily, in fact, to deal with a colossal failure to stand up for press freedom, 7 Press freedom alerts a Snowden-type situation,” he said. Whistleblower freedom of expression, privacy, freedom to access Thailand’s Justice Ministry at work Edward Snowden had worked with journalists to information and the public’s right to know. Alan Morison reveal US government officials had routinely and 8 TALK IS CHEAP deliberately broken the law1. As this 2015 report into the state of press freedom in Australia shows, press freedom has been under 58 Press freedom IN NEW Zealand On February 27 this year, the report of Parliament’s assault in many other areas. South Australia 11 THE YEAR IN Australian Inquiry puts spotlight on official Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security continues to reject attempts to introduce a shield law, Paul Murphy media laW information delays revealed that targeting whistleblowers was one thus exposing journalists throughout Australia to the CEO Brent Edwards of the aims of its metadata retention scheme. prospect of plaintiffs going “jurisdiction shopping”. MEAA Peter Bartlett Recommendation 27 of the committee’s report said 59 Press freedom IN THE journalists’ metadata would be accessed “for the Tasmania briefly considered breaking away from the 15 COUNTER-TERROR AND national purpose of determining the identity of a journalist’s uniform national defamation scheme to reintroduce ASIA-PACIFIC reGION sources”. the prospect of corporations suing for damages. 2015 Australian SECuritY International Federation of Gloves on in the fight to hide Public interest journalism relies on whistleblowers, Freedom of information law reform continues to Press FreeDOM Report Journalists Asia-Pacific digital fingerprints the confidential sources that provide crucial linger in limbo due to successive governments’ Josh Taylor Facing the danger information to journalists — sometimes placing both inaction and a lack of courage in embracing sensible Philippa McDonald at great risk. remedies that ensure the public can benefit from Living with the fear truly open government. 33 S hield laWS AND Confidential Nonoy Espina It is a well-known ethical principle of journalism that sourCes journalists do not reveal their confidential sources. And while we are all delighted at the release and Data retention’s threat to It’s a principle that is vigorously defended because homecoming of Peter Greste from his Cairo prison, Editor: Mike Dobbie shield laws 65 THE Media SafetY AND it is the only way many vital stories in the public the re-trial of Peter and his colleagues goes on. MEAA interest can ever be told. Whistleblowers turn to is also awaiting the fate of Australian journalist Alan Thanks to: Joseph M Fernandez SolidaritY FUND Peter Bartlett journalists to help expose misconduct, illegality, Morison who faces up to seven years in a Thai jail for Quentin Dempster fraud, threats to health and safety, and corruption. reprinting a paragraph from a Reuters news report. Brent Edwards 37 Media ACCess to ASYlum 67 THE WAY forWard Our communities are the better for their courageous Nonoy Espina efforts to ensure the public’s right to know. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the murder Paul Farrell SEEKERS of our colleagues Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Tony Joseph M Fernandez Shrouded in secrecy 68 ReferenCes Peter Greste If the identity of whistleblowers can be revealed Stewart, Gary Cunningham and Greg Shackleton in Alexandra Hearne Paul Farrell then that has a chilling effect on public interest Balibo and Roger East in Dili in East Timor. MEAA Philippa McDonald journalism; sources needing anonymity cannot rely is disappointed that the AFP spent five years on Alan Morison on their contact with a journalist being kept secret. examining these war crimes only to abandon their Jennifer O’Brien 40 WhistleBloWER proteCtion Josh Taylor When that happens, we all lose. investigation without seeking any co-operation from Jane Worthington Indonesia and “without any interaction with their 42 Media reGulation The politicians who ignored press freedom concerns counterparts, the Indonesian National Police. The MEAA thanks all the about the raft of national security laws failed to result is that impunity has triumphed and the killers photographers, cartoonists and understand how confidential sources and public of the Balibo Five and Roger East have literally got illustrators who have contributed 43 Freedom OF Information to this report. interest journalism are linked. away with murder. Cover illustration by 46 Star CHAMBERS If you are going after whistleblowers, you are going after It can only be hoped that over the coming year, Peter Sheehan journalism. greater effort will be made by governments, Design by politicians, government agencies and those who like Louise Summerton, 48 RedundanCies And even when they did register the concerns for to talk about championing press freedom to turn Magnesium Media press freedom, their solutions failed miserably. Take away from repressing freedom of expression and the so-called “safeguard” of journalist information actually respect and promote it. Approved by Paul Murphy, Media, Entertainment & Arts warrants introduced as an amendment to the data Alliance retention scheme. The journalist information warrant Paul Murphy 245 Chalmers Street, will operate in secret on pain of a two-year jail term. CEO Redfern, NSW 2016 It relies on “public interest advocates” appointed MEAA GOING AFTER WHISTLEBLOWERS, GOING AFTER JOURNALISM THE REPORT INTO THE STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA IN 2015 page 4 page 5 There IS NO neutral TURF, NO safe GROUND Peter Greste — an excerpt from his address to the National Press Club, Canberra, on March 26 2015 e need to understand that freedom of environment, rather than in any place particularly speech is being threatened in ways that we hostile to journalists. haven’t seen for a generation. Rarely have Wso many of us been imprisoned, beaten up, Of course, propaganda is as old as war itself and intimidated or murdered in the course of our duties. warring factions have always sought to control the According to a count by the Committee to Protect narrative but, in these wars over stuff, the target Journalists, last year 60 were killed on the job or has generally been the message rather than the because of their work. That number is slightly down messenger. from the 70 who were killed the year before. But this brings me back to the War on Terror, a And here’s a statistic that obviously interests me; conflict that is, by its very nature, indefinable with at the end of last year, the number of journalists no clear physical or ideological boundaries and with imprisoned for their work stood at 220, with China, a title that, frankly, means everything and nothing Iran, Eritrea and Egypt topping the list of the jailers. — or rather it means what any of the groups involved really want it to mean. Another group, Freedom House, has produced a map of press freedom across the globe. Purple marks In a way that we haven’t seen in a generation, this the countries where press is not free and there is is a struggle over an “ism”. It’s a battle between a vast stain that spreads across Asia, through the competing world views much more than it is over a Middle East and down into Northern and Central fight for land or resources and, in this struggle, the Africa. The yellow patches that mark a partly free message is as much a weapon as any gun. Witness press spread across most of Latin Africa, West Africa, the way that Islamic State has used YouTube to East Africa and a few corners of South East Asia. recruit its supporters and terrify its opponents. or the government’s handling of it is to make water. My work was, I have to admit, rather routine. Mural by Hego of Peter Greste on the front of the yourself a target. In the view of both sides, if you It was certainly nothing special. But the trouble is MEAA offices in Sydney Depressingly, Freedom House reckons that the green Now, the trouble for us journalists is that in this cross the lines in pursuit of our most fundamental that Egypt is the most polarised society I’ve ever bits, the bits that cover Western Europe, North conflict there is no neutral turf, no safe ground principles of balance, of accuracy, of fairness, you seen in a place that isn’t in civil war. America and Australasia cover only 14 per cent of from which to report.