Australia’s media landscape and harsh defamation laws are failing democracy, one of the nation’s leading press freedom advocates has argued. Peter Greste, director and spokesperson of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, says the government needs to do more to support a healthy media landscape.
“We need to rethink the way that the system functions and redesign it in a way that prioritises the public interest in good information and good journalism over and above any commercial interests,” Greste told Crikey.
The not-for-profit alliance, which helps develop legislation to support media freedom and campaigns for media rights in the Asia-Pacific region, will receive any surplus donated to Crikey’s GoFundMe fundraiser — established to cover costs against Lachlan Murdoch’s defamation lawsuit. The fundraiser has, as of this morning, passed the $300,000 mark, with former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull making sizeable donations. Crikey estimates $3 million is needed in legal fees.
The fight for press freedom and protection for journalists is a personal one: Greste spent more than 400 days behind bars in Egypt on terrorism charges while on assignment with Al Jazeera. He’s also worked for the BBC and is now a professor of journalism at Macquarie University. He was formerly the UNESCO chair in journalism and communication at the University of Queensland.
“The whole point of press freedom is to give the public access to a wide range of high-quality information so that they can make informed decisions from an array of sources,” he said.
“[Australians] have access to a very narrow range of sources. So in that regard, press freedom isn’t being served.”
It comes down to negative and positive freedom, he said — freedom from and freedom to. While Australia has freedom from government interference in media organisations, Australians don’t have the freedom to access diverse sources. Greater government intervention would support a healthy media landscape in Australia, he said.
The country’s harsh defamation laws were another concern: “Media companies far too often close legitimate journalistic reporting down not necessarily because it’s illegitimate, but because of the [potential defamation] costs.”
Greste is calling for a “thorough” review into the way defamation laws work, arguing that in their current form they stifle fair comment criticism of public figures.
This story was updated at 5 pm, August 29, to include Peter Greste’s current job.
How strange that he did not mention the most egregious attack of media freedom – Julian Assange.
Must have just slipped his mind.
True – it was the first thing that came to mind when I read the article. It’s shameful that our Government doesn’t appear to have any interest in bringing him home.
Hear hear. Absolutely.
We stumble, with each passing day,
to Orwell’s 1984,
Big Brother’s power on display
in those who seek to use the law
to trample on our human rights,
subverting freedom of the press
with brutal defamation fights
designed to magnify distress.
Our journos will still have to face
a difficult and rocky road
unless new laws are put in place
to ease the burden that’s bestowed
on them, the looming heavy hand
that can come down, deployed at will,
and threatening a witness stand,
too often simply overkill.
So these are fights that must be won
to fortify the truth and make
damn sure that justice can be done,
exposing facts for freedom’s sake,
for if such battles now are lost
and “might is right” becomes the norm,
democracy will pay the cost,
and there will never be reform.
The mighty Murdoch you may pester,
and all your ammo, even Greste,
you will need to throw at him –
but all in vain for, on a whim
he crushes Crikey in the court
because he can, and just for sport.
“Truth and justice,
the press’s freedom?
I am the press
and I don’t need ’em.”
Greste’s dismissal of Assange’s claim to being a journalist disgusted me at the time and I have yet to hear any change of heart from him.
I don’t want any part of my donation going to his causes.
I worry about what he is teaching future stenographers…sorry, churnalists at Macquarie.
He is an utter turncoat.