Journalists could be jailed for up to six months for publishing allegations of corrupt conduct about candidates during election periods, Queensland’s Attorney-General has told Parliament in a surprise announcement.
Media union MEAA Queensland organising director Michelle Rae said the proposed changes were designed to reduce accountability.
“It’s a process of what feels like battening down the hatches in a pre-election period,” Ms Rae said.
The State Opposition says the Government has an “appalling” record with whistleblowers.
"The change will undoubtedly restrain reporting on allegations of substance and MEAA members are simply trying to do their jobs.
"Queensland is one of the only states that doesn’t afford protections to journalists doing their jobs, and now wants to attack them further for reporting on the Government.
“We’ll be writing to the Attorney-General and we’ll be raising our concerns about how this doesn’t represent the community’s best interests and journalists should be protected for doing their jobs, not punished.”
The bill is simply to clamp down on freedom of the press rather than to ensure integrity of the election process or to ensure Crime and Corruption Commission can do its job properly.
The journalist, who has not been identified, works at a television news station.
In 2018, he received information from an unnamed source and directed a reporter and cameraman to knock on the door of a home. A few days later, the crew went back to the address to film an arrest taking place, according to the recent Queensland Supreme Court judgment.
The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission investigated police for disclosing information without lawful authority. A police officer has been charged, accused of sharing information illegally about a murder investigation and counter-terrorism raids.
That didn’t last long.
Herald Sun has join forces with LetUsSpeak campaign urging the Victorian Government to reform the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act, which prevents sexual assault victims from telling their stories under real identities.
The legislation was quietly introduced in February this year.
Federal Parliament’s intelligence and security committee yesterday tabled its report on an inquiry on press freedom.
ABC statement on Dan Oakes
David Anderson, ABC Managing Director:
The Australian Federal Police has notified me that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will not proceed with any action against our journalist Dan Oakes and that the matter is now finalised.
This follows the same decision in regards to ABC journalist Sam Clark in July.
While we welcome this decision, we also maintain the view the matter should never have gone this far.
That the CDPP has reached the decision that prosecuting our journalists is not in the public interest only compounds what we have argued all along: Journalists in this country should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs and legislation needs to be changed to provide proper protection for journalists and their sources when they are acting in the public interest.
This whole episode has been both disappointing and disturbing.
The Afghan Files is factual and important reporting which exposed allegations about Australian soldiers committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Its accuracy has never been challenged and it remains online for audiences to read.
Gaven Morris, ABC Director, News:
It’s more than three years since the ABC published The Afghan Files and over a year since the AFP raided our Ultimo building hunting information on the confidential sources for that reporting.
The pressure on our journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark over that time has at times been extreme, and they have handled it with admirable fortitude.
While we’re enormously relieved the ordeal is now over for them, the ABC’s fight for public interest journalism to be protected is far from over.
We will always back our journalists to report independently and without fear or favour stories Australians have a right to know.
Finally, some good news in 2020.
It said Australia’s whistleblowing laws weren’t working properly and secrecy laws were so broad they are “susceptible to overuse, misuse or even abuse”.
A majority on the committee made 17 recommendations, including fixing gaps in whistleblowing laws, strengthening rules that let journalists protect sources’ identities in court, and forcing the government to show it had actually been harmed by leaks before prosecuting.
The Greens issued their own additional recommendations, arguing there should be a dedicated Media Freedom Bill to exclude public interest journalism from criminal offences, and suggesting the media should be allowed to have their own representatives challenge covert warrants.
Will seek leave of appeal to the HCA.
UPDATE 23/1
The Australian reports the decision has prompted outrage from editors and journalists from media organisations across Australia, who last week wrote a letter to Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop to express their concerns over the effect the change will have on reporters’ ability to report fairly and accurately. Chief Justice Allsop wrote back to media organisations on Friday, saying that allowing “non-parties” – such as journalists – to inspect legal papers as soon as they are filed has led to “undesirable consequences”.
UPDATE 13/2