(FREE THE) FREEDOM OF THE PRESS!

The United Nations promotes freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a basic human right. However, is this what we have seen in recent events? Is it our right to know what actions our special elite forces are taking in Afghanistan as discussed last week? On Wednesday we heard Emily, Shania and Keira discuss the matter. Here's what I got from it:

research.butmedia.org


On December 26, 1996 the UN adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 suggests 
1.    Everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference 
2.    Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including freedom to seek, receive and impart information of all kinds. 

3.    That there are certain restrictions such as for the respect of the rights or reputations of others, and for the protection of national security or of public order. 

Looking at Article 19 of the ICCPR, it interested me to know that #2 almost conflicts with the issue we explored last week, where journalist Annika Smethurst was raided by the AFP for her story on intelligence agencies spying on Australians. I believe that story was in the public’s interest to know. The AFP’s reasoning for the raid was due to “the alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret”. 

AFP’s raids questioned Australia’s freedom of the press and freedom of information rights. With Australia adopting one of the harshest defamation laws, freedom of the press is more important now than ever. Australia’s Freedom of Information Act 1982 means anyone can gain access to data withheld from the government about them, or government policies and decisions.  Seems fair, right? Not quite.

An investigation into the freedom of information (FOI) laws saw systematic issues, resulting in a lot of government information being kept secret. Documents are hardly released, with the rate of FOI refusals at a record high of 17%. This is particularly due to the secrecy of the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), that gave conditional approval to lend Adani $1 billion in taxpayers money. NAIF rejected 99.4% of FOI requests. 

When documents are released, they are often deemed irrelevant due to the time delay. Over 2,000 FOI requests have taken more than three months longer than the statutory time frame to finalise. 

An anonymous insider who still works for the government said this is no mistake.

“A lot of the tactics are really just to delay the release, particularly until the heat has gone out of something,” he said.

forestpolicypub.com


So is freedom of information really free? Or only when it is looks good for the government? 

Comments

  1. Emily WindAugust 23, 2019 at 4:51 AM

    Great post, Brianna. This issue really gives us a lot to think about, and based on recent events I tend to agree with the latter in your closing statement – that freedom of information is only free when it looks good for the government. It ties in with the fact that the 2018 National Security Legislation Amendment has no checks or balances in place, meaning the government can effectively keep anything secret that is against their interests.

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