Campaign for the right to know fights the darkness

October 20, 2019
Sydney Morning Herald


Australians are being urged to heed new warnings about the cost of government secrecy in a united campaign by the nation's biggest media companies that calls on Parliament to enshrine press freedom and protect whistleblowers.

The "Your Right to Know" campaign intensifies the case for significant law reform to stop the suppression of information that is vital to consumers, citing real-world examples such as the suppression of information about abuse of the elderly in aged care homes.


Australia's media organisations are pushing for increased government transparency through the Your Right to Know campaign.

Seeking change after police raids on journalists and whistleblowers this year, the media industry is widening the argument over the "right to know" by focusing on the harm to Australians if abuse and corruption are never exposed.

With a media blitz running for weeks, the campaign is unusual in its scale as well as its broad support across the industry from Nine, the ABC, The Guardian, News Corp Australia, Prime Media, Seven West Media, Sky News, SBS, Ten, the WIN Network and others.


The campaign, launched on Sunday night with television advertisements nationwide, moves the debate beyond disputes over national security laws as Parliament conducts two inquiries into restrictions on the media. In one campaign advertisement, Australians are told of the federal government’s refusal to disclose the aged care homes responsible for more than 4,000 reports of assaults of residents last year.


Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is putting pressure on the government to back the campaign.

The media coalition is seeking six reforms including "properly functioning" laws to ensure freedom of information as Labor backs some of the arguments for change while the Coalition warns against reform.

"My government will always believe in the freedom of the press – it’s an important part of our freedoms as a liberal democracy," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday.

"I also believe in the rule of law and that no-one is above it, including me or anyone else, any journalist.

"The rule of law has to be applied evenly and fairly in protection of our broader freedoms, and so I don’t think anyone's, I would hope, looking for a leave pass on those things."

Attorney-General Christian Porter said there were "sensible" changes to be considered but he objected to wide exemptions for journalists from national security and secrecy laws, including the regime to monitor metadata.

"Some of the demands, I’ve got to say, are right at the outer edge of workability."



The debate appears certain to intensify in Parliament as Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese calls on the government to rule out prosecutions of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and ABC journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, all three the subject of police raids in June.

"The government should shut that down. People should not be charged for doing their job," Mr Albanese said on Sunday.

"Journalism isn't a crime, it’s an essential part of our democracy. We need to cherish it, we need to make sure that whatever legislative changes are required to ensure media freedom are adopted.

"It should happen in a bipartisan way and it should happen quickly."

Mr Albanese said Labor was prepared to support change but the government was not willing to protect media freedom.

The changes being sought include the right for media outlets to challenge a warrant to be used for a police raid. Other changes include exemptions for journalists from some of the security laws enacted over the last seven years.

The media outlets are calling for stronger protections for public sector whistleblowers to ensure they can reveal wrongdoing without punishment.

On government transparency and accountability, the media outlets are seeking a dramatic improvement in the Freedom of Information Act to ensure the swift and affordable release of documents, as well as limits on papers that can be stamped "secret" so they can be suppressed for years. The campaign also seeks reforms to defamation laws.

ABC managing director David Anderson said Australia was at risk of becoming "the world’s most secretive democracy" while News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said Australians should be "suspicious" of governments that restricted their right to know.

Nine Entertainment chief executive Hugh Marks said the new campaign was "much bigger than the media" because it was about the right of all Australians to know about decisions made in their name.

The campaign is backed by whistleblowers and consumer advocates who have helped expose government inaction or corporate misconduct in the past, including those who pressed for the banking royal commission.

"History tells us that we can’t rely on the regulators to identify and punish all corporate misbehaviour," said John Berrill, a director of the Consumer Action Law Centre.

It's no surprise that the Coalition government has passed laws that erode the freedom of the press and that allow them to hide information. They are a corrupt government and they wish to hide their corruption.

Bring on the REVOLUTION

How many reviews or inquiries do we have where we see nothing come from it or the Government ignores the advice anyway....The reason they hide information is because it is not favourable for the Government politically or it is embarrassing....IMO they will keep the threat of prosecution to get the whistle blowers and silence those who speak out!!!



If you have to keep something secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!
David Nicholls, One Day, 2010

juliar wrote on Oct 21^st, 2019 at 7:32pm:


The same donors also gave to the Liberals ?

juliar wrote on Oct 21^st, 2019 at 7:44pm:

Grubberments lie, this is a known fact.

Grubberments have many nasty secrets, this also is a known fact.

Grubberments demand tgat the people tell the absolute truth and reveal everything, all the time.

But the grubberment is allowed to lie, cheat and do illegal and immoral things.

Even using the system to find out the truth for something not security related is not honest.
I tried to get some stats and information about the $peed $camera theft and inaccuracies.
TGEY made it impossibly expensive for an individual.

So I went to a current affair, they paid the exorbitant cash to get the data, but in tge eleventh hour the RTA refused to provide it claiming it to be "not in the interest of tge grubberment to disclose the data"
In other words, they woukd not provide proof of the rampant gouging, theft and illegal practices employed to take money from people.

The grubberment is full of crooked, immoral and disgusting creatures who have no aim other than taking without giving back.

We need a REVOLUTION........now