Aust spying laws face redraft to better protect journalists

AUSTRALIA: Whistleblowers and journalists who reveal national secrets won’t face severe jail terms, after the government decided to scale back controversial spying laws.

But the opposition Labor Party wants it to also take another look at the rest of the bills included in the latest suite of national security measures.

The Turnbull government last year announced legislation tackling what it said was the growing threat of foreign states trying to influence Australia’s political landscape.

The proposed laws will now be rewritten to protect journalists and their sources, after media organisations said they could ‘‘criminalise’’ journalism.

‘‘There is no desire by the Turnbull government to limit the legitimate work of journalists or their employers,’’ AttorneyGeneral Christian Porter said yes- terday. ‘‘A free media is a foundation of our democratic system.’’

The laws, which are still in the draft stage, will be rewritten to narrow the definition of ‘‘conduct that would cause harm to Australia’s interests’’, to protect public servants who leak to journalists.

Offences that apply to nonpublic servants will now only be applied to the more serious and dangerous conduct.

Journalists, editors and support staff also won’t have to demonstrate that their reporting was ‘‘fair and accurate’’, as long as they reasonably believe their conduct was in the public interest.

Media organisations said the laws originally contained provisions that could have seen journalists and whistleblowers jailed for up to 20 years.

Labor has cautiously welcomed the announced changes and wants the amendments to be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.

But shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said the other three bills in the government’s latest suite of national security changes – on foreign donations, establishing a foreign influence transparency scheme, and setting up the Home Affairs portfolio – also needed changes.

‘‘What’s happened over the summer ... [is] a howl of outrage from not just journalists but from charities, from business organisations, from the universities of Australia,’’ he said.

Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch, a journalist for 55 years, said he wanted to see the details of the rewrite before dropping his opposition to the changes.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation told a parliamentary committee that Australia was in a period ‘‘probably more dangerous in many respects than any time since the Cold War’’.

– AAP