In this third “vision statement”, the Labor leader has condemned online platforms for being unwilling to filter out false information.
The “Your Right To Know” campaign is supported by an unlikely coalition of media outlets. This is what Monday morning’s papers looked like in support of the campaign.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Our national security laws are uniquely broad and complex – and media freedom too often becomes entangled in them. It’s time to enshrine this freedom as a central part of our democracy.
Steve Biko is widely considered to be the father of Black Consciousness in South Africa.
EFE-EPA/Sowetan
Black consciousness in South Africa changed blacks and whites.
“I have previously said that I would be seriously disinclined to approve prosecutions of journalists except in the most exceptional circumstances,” said Attorney-General Christian Porter.
Lukas Coch/AAP
As the battle over press freedom continues, the Attorney-General has ordered that any prosecution of a journalist for offences related to national security must have his approval.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
In death, President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi has left behind an unfinished revolution which now needs a new leader.
Australia is the only Western democracy without some form of charter of rights legislated by parliament or entrenched in the constitution.
Lukas Coch/AAP
We have a serious deficit in legal protection for human rights in Australia, rights that have been in regression for 20 years. We need a legislated charter setting out the rights we care about.
Witness K’s lawyer Bernard Collaery addresses outside the Supreme Court. Australia’s laws have shown they don’t do much to protect whistleblowers acting in the public interest.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Australian laws make it inevitable for whistleblowers to be charged whenever national security might be involved, even when the information is in the public interest.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton appears to have backed down from his previous hardline position on AFP raids and press freedom.
AAP/Sam Mooy
While the ministerial direction represents a genuflection in the direction of press freedom, it provides nothing by way of protection for whistleblowers.
Recent AFP raids on media outlets raised fears of a chilling effect on investigative journalism, but a new book finds it is thriving against the odds.
David Gray/AAP
Despite media companies’ revenue declining in recent years, a nine-year study reveals that the greatly feared death of investigative journalism has not occurred.
Newspapers in Swahili and in English in Dar es Salaam. The media is increasingly not trusted in Tanzania.
Shutterstock
Paul Oosting responds to GetUp’s critics
The Conversation, CC BY29.1 MB(download)
GetUp's national director Paul Oosting joins Michelle Grattan to respond to critics who accuse the organisation of "creating an environment...[of] abuse, harassment, intimidation".
Some African journalists are concerned that foreign funders may influence what they cover and how.
EPA-EFE/Jayden Joshua
Western aid has resulted in an Anglo-American culture of journalism education which has proved impractical to implement in African countries with illiberal political regimes.
The government has approved a parliamentary inquiry into press freedom – a step the major media organisations have dismissed as unnecessary.
Bianca De Marchi/AAP
A parliamentary inquiry into press freedom is merely a public relations exercise designed to buy time until the public anger over last month’s police raids dies down.
Two Australian Federal Police officers walking out of the ABC Ultimo building after conducting a raid.
David Gray/AAP
Labor is proposing establishing a new parliamentary committee to look into press freedom; one that will deal with whistle blowers and have crossbench representation.
News Corp Executive Chariman Michael Miller (left), Nine Chief Executive Officer Hugh Marks (centre) and ABC Managing Director David Anderson (right) stressed unity in their fight for press freedom.
Rohan Thomson/AAP
The heads of News Corp, Nine and ABC talked tough on the need for stronger legal protections for journalists. But unity is meaningless unless it brings meaningful action from the government.
The ABC and News Corp have argued that the AFP raids infringe the “implied freedom of political communication” protected by the Australian Constitution.
AAP/The Conversation
Media companies’ legal challenges to the legitimacy of recent AFP raids will allow the courts to clarify where the line is between national security and press freedom.
Senator James McGrath in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra.
Mick Tsikas
Following similar comments by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, a senator has called for the ABC to sell its Ultimo headquarters and move to the suburbs and regional centres.
Ideally, Australia would introduce constitutional protections for media freedom. But, in the meantime, four laws need urgent reform to better balance those freedoms with national security.
Raymond Louw, right, with then deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, middle, and veteran journalist Mathatha Tsedu in 2015.
GovernmentZA/Flickr