26 - Your right to Know, Press Freedom and Free Speech

<p>In this episode, I go over Media restrictions, but also the responsibilities of reporting fairly and accurately using Trump as an example), and the need for Free Speech in a healthy democracy.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The Sydney Morning Herald covered some background...</p> <p><br></p> <p>Media organisations in Australia have long been concerned about threats to journalism, but the issue exploded into the public consciousness following two consecutive police raids earlier this year.</p> <p><br></p> <p>On June 4, police conducted a six-hour raid on the home of News Corp political journalist Annika Smethurst over an April 2018 story. The story had revealed a proposal for electronic intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate to take on an expanded domestic role and that figures inside government were concerned about the idea.</p> <p><br></p> <p>On June 5, as part of a separate leak investigation, police raided the Sydney headquarters of the ABC over a 2017 series on accusations of war crimes committed by Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan. The warrant named multiple ABC journalists responsible for the reporting. A week earlier, a former military lawyer was committed to stand trial over the leak of documents to the ABC.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Reporters Without Borders ranked Australia as 21st in the world for press freedom in 2019, dropping two places since last year. The international organisation has warned that investigative journalism is under threat from “draconian” laws. Another global watchdog, Freedom House, has warned of a troubling trend in Australia despite a strong democratic history.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Constitutional lawyer George Williams has pointed to the approximately 75 rounds of national security legislation that have been passed by the Parliament since September 11, 2001. He says the scale of this legislation far exceeds comparable democracies and have significantly heightened secrecy and restrictions on press freedom.</p> <p><br></p> <p>To read more, visit the original article here -