Monitoring power behind the pen

The risk that unelected outsiders, whether trade union officials or media billionaires, can exert undue influence over politics is one of the key issues for the future of Australian democracy. So forgive us if we ignore the complaints from rival media organisations News Corp and Seven West about coverage of whether their respective owners Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes played a role in the dismissal of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.

The Age, our sister paper The Australian Financial Review and the ABC have reported on conversations between Stokes, Murdoch and Turnbull in the days before the Liberal Party leadership spill. The Financial Review and then the ABC reported that shortly before the coup, Murdoch told Stokes that ‘‘Malcolm has to go’’ and Stokes expressed concern that instability in the party would guarantee a Labor government.

The Age reported that Turnbull called Murdoch two days before the leadership spill asking him to stop backing his challenger, Peter Dutton. The paper is not claiming it is entirely above this fray. It makes editorial choices about its political coverage. But we can reassure readers their interests, not those of our owners, come first.

Elsewhere, however, media moguls have a much more interventionist approach. Where that happens, it is entirely in the public interest to report on how it affects Australian politics.