Australian media Monday published blanked-out pages to protest the increasing monitoring of government on what is published.
The front pages of Monday’s edition showed a heavily redacted government document, accompanied by a media campaign demanding changes to laws that criminalize journalism and penalize whistleblowing.
All major Australian media outlets are seeking improvement in the working environment for press in the country.
“It doesn’t impact me personally but it has an impact on what we can report,” a journalist from Sydney said.
“The government is closely watching my employer the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Agency] as we are the public broadcaster,” the journalist said requesting anonymity over restrictions to speak on the issue.
Australian publishers including Nine, News Corp, the ABC, SBS, The Guardian, and journalists’ union the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance are running a campaign under “Right to Know” to seek stronger protection for media freedom after years of perceived deterioration, Sydney Morning Herald reported on Monday.
Nineteen media organizations and journalist unions, some of them traditionally rivals, banded together for the “Your Right To Know” campaign.
The campaign was sparked by an incident in June, when federal police raided a public broadcaster’s office and a reporter’s home in their search for leaked government documents.
A former army lawyer was charged over the leaks, and a number of journalists could also be charged.
The campaign is calling for six legal changes, such as a system that limits which documents can be labeled “secret” and the right to contest a search warrant.
Daily Sydney Morning Herald said that Australian police raided home of News Corp political journalist Annika Smethurst for six hours on June 4 over an April 2018 story.
It reported that the journalist had revealed a proposal for electronic intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate to take on an expanded domestic role and figures inside the government were concerned about the idea.
In a similar operation, Australian police raided the Sydney headquarters of the ABC on June 5 over a 2017 series on accusations of war crimes committed by Australia’s special forces in Afghanistan.
The police action, supported by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, triggered an outpour of condemnation by free press advocates.
