An impressive show of solidarity with three of Australia’s media bosses discussing the issues facing journalists and whistleblowers at the National Press Club in Canberra last week revealing that they’re looking to the new government to change the current slew of constraints in laws that make reporting in what we call the ‘need to know’ aspect of news publishing up for debate.
This debate was the result of police visits to the Canberra home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s head office in Sydney, played out with lots of coverage and sending a shiver down the spines of those who seek to make us aware of the difficulties laws present for the journalists and whistleblowers.
The right to know is a basic tenet of a free and diligent press and the fact that current laws limit so many aspects of reporting while police search ‘undies’ drawers is beyond belief. It was good to see Annika Smethurst maintaining her sense of humour while other journalists quivered at the thought of it happening to them.
The Press Club audience was a formidable cross section of our media bosses, presenters and working journalists with none of our new kids on the block from Parliament hill.
And that’s where solutions lie.
Back to the drawing board.
The truth sometimes hurts but our right to know is paramount and essential, and any restrictions highlight that invasive sense of ‘secret’ as anathema to a free press.
The lesson is to keep our undies drawer tidy, we never know when the boys and girls in blue might come knocking.
