Our united stand in quest for the truth

TODAY you are witnessing media history.

Media organisations who would normally be fierce competitors have joined forces to voice their concerns over the culture of secrecy that has slowly engulfed Australia.

It is an unprecedented approach to an extreme situation.

What began as a form of ‘media management’ several years ago has spiralled into an accepted practice of suppression, manipulation and, at its worst, censorship that is affecting all Australians.

That information may be in the public interest is no longer important. Journalists are now being stopped from accessing key facts as a matter of course. We can no longer simply call and interview elected officials or public servants. Any questions have to be emailed in advance through an intermediary with no guarantee or even likelihood that they will be answered anyway. If we do access information the authorities did not want discovered, they simply cry ‘fake news’.

And in extreme circumstances that seem more akin to a totalitarian regime, the government believes it is accepted practice to raid journalists’ homes and search through their belongings.

But today’s stance is not because this culture of secrecy is an impediment to journalists doing their job — the real travesty is that it is an obstruction to our readers’ right to know. We are being asked to trust that the people in power are acting in our best interests but are being seriously restricted in our ability to question them on it.

You have the right to access key information without having to endure protracted Freedom of Information requests that result in overly redacted information, or having to pay for readily available statistics from organisations that you, the taxpayers, are already funding.

The government is most comfortable when most of its residents are in the dark.

Today the Addy is proud to partner with media across the country in fighting to bring you into the light.