Claims made in the media that the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) sought to silence media personality Andrew Bogut have been strongly refuted by Electoral Commissioner, Warwick Gately.
The VEC issued the former basketballer a warning letter after he posted a video allegedly urging his followers to vote out the State Government.
“Free speech is important and everyone is free to express their opinion – the VEC encourages robust political discussion,” Mr Gately (pictured) said.
“However, if a person publishes that opinion and it is intended or likely to affect how a person votes in an election, it must be properly authorised,” he said.
“That’s the law and it applies to all of us, whether they be a media personality, a member of the public, political party or candidate in an election.”
Mr Gately said authorisation requirements had been a feature of Victorian electoral law for more than 20 years and applied to everyone.
The Commissioner said the purpose of authorisation was to ensure that the public knew and understood who was providing the commentary.
He said Mr Bogut had not been targeted or treated any differently to anyone else, “if we receive a complaint, we respond”.
“It’s quite simple really, all he needs to do is to add his name and an address, which can be a business address,” Mr Gately said.
“End of story.”
He said that, at the 2020 Local Government elections, 244 complaints about lack of authorisation across various channels, including websites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, print, billboards and posters, were made to the VEC and those too were followed up.
