Media raids will hurt exposure of misdeeds

SOURCES ARE KEY TO EXPOSING INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT IN A GOVERNMENT ENTITY OR LARGE CORPORATIONS.

FREE speech in Australia is under attack.

We can either allow the slide to secrecy to continue, or we can rally and seek strengthened free speech laws.

Countless laws exist that restrict the media’s right to publish in Australia. The obvious ones are defamation, contempt of court, suppression orders, children’s court rules, and national security secrecy laws that allow raids on journalists.

The media accepts that laws in these areas are necessary. In all cases, such laws are a balancing act.

For example, defamation balances the right to free speech against protection of reputation. Contempt of court and suppression laws balance free speech and open justice against the right to a fair trial.

Getting the balance right is the key, and at the moment the balance is off. .

Free speech includes the media’s right and ability to inform the public about important issues.

Pretty much every day for 20 years I’ve been involved as a media lawyer in the application of those laws. Be it a case in court, advice I provide about a proposed article or responding to a police subpoena, I’ve seen just about every secrecy law in operation.

And make no mistake, the media is definitely more inhibited and restricted in what it can publish today than it was 20 years ago.

So while freedoms and rights in other areas of society are becoming more liberal, free speech in Australia is becoming more restricted.

The slide to secrecy must stop.

So how is the media being restricted?

Sources are key to exposing inappropriate conduct in a government entity or large corporations.

Sources come forward because they’re courageous and because they know journalists won’t reveal them.

But that comes at a cost.

I’ve acted for journalists who have been subjected to terrible harassment and received convictions and punishments for doing nothing but their job of exposing inappropriate conduct.

Only this year Federal Police raided the ABC and the home of News Corp’s gun journalist Annika Smethurst. Annika’s undies drawer was searched – all because she dared to publish a story that was clearly in the public interest. That search warrant was granted without any ability for Annika to contest it.

So while we have limited shield laws for journalists’ sources, they need to be seriously strengthened.