AFP plan no brake on media raids

PRESS freedom advocates have slammed a proposal asking journalists to hand over confidential documents to avoid police raids on their homes as “meaningless,” “window dressing” and proof the Morrison Government “had not listened” to concerns about the public’s right to know.

The proposal, by the Australian Federal Police and Department of Home Affairs, would allow police to request documents and the names of confidential sources from journalists without the use of force, and could allow news organisations to “challenge” requests.

But the new regime would be voluntary and, according to the proposal, would “not limit the ability (for police) to apply for a search warrant” on a journalist or newsroom.

The submission to the parliamentary press freedom inquiry followed months of campaigning for the public’s right to know and legal reform by media organisations, and came as the ABC slammed the raid on its newsroom last year as “an assault on public interest journalism”.

The proposed new “Commonwealth Notice to Produce Framework,” could be written into the Crime Act, and used to request sensitive information from the media as part of police investigations.

But News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the proposal overlooked “genuine concerns held by all media over government overreach and secrecy,” misrepresented legal reforms sought by the industry, such as contestable search warrants, and came nine months after media raids.

“The Federal Government has made clear that its preference is to maintain the bad laws which enable governments to hide from Australians what they are doing,” Mr Miller said.

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance chief executive Paul Murphy also said the scheme would not protect press freedom or prevent police raids on media organisations. “Our reading is that it’s meaningless,” he said.

Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus also criticised the proposal, saying it “changes nothing”.

The proposal emerged as ABC managing director David Anderson revealed the news organisation would not appeal the Federal Court decision that upheld the raid on its Ultimo newsroom last year, despite calling the action an attack on press freedom.