Asia Times: Media restrictions hit as threat to Australian democracy


	March 6, 2002	atimes.com

Oceania

Media curbs seen as threat to Australian democracy

SYDNEY - Recent restrictions against the media fully investigating federal government claims threaten to turn Australia into a backward and insular society, a media executive says.

The chief executive officer of John Fairfax Ltd, Frederick Hilmer, said that Australia must be vigilant in maintaining a free and vibrant press so that the nation moves forward. Hilmer said that moves by the John Howard government to restrict media access threatens democracy in Australia. "Indeed a free media is essential to the proper functioning of a free society," he said. "Without an informed public, democracy is compromised."

In the case of the government accusing asylum seekers at Woomera Detention Center of sewing up their children's lips, the media were only given access to the official version of the story. "Because we were barred from the facility, there could be no independent verification - of the type we have seen we have needed with the refugees coming here on boats - of what actually transpired," Hilmer said. "We still do not know."

After the September 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York the Australian government introduced legislation to strengthen the laws on espionage but have also restricted free speech, Hilmer said. He said that the Criminal Code Amendment Bill makes it a crime to communicate or receive official information. It also treats any unauthorized disclosure of information by public servants as if it were a leak of official secrets, Hilmer said.

"Such legislation can be used to plug leaks - and we believe it could well be so used," he said. "Under this bill, we would be liable for prosecution for publishing the pictures of the refugees in the water that became public recently."

In the current political climate, where there is a sense of pessimism, doubt and trauma, journalists need to be more vigilant as liberties are more likely to be in danger, he said. "I think these issues of press freedom are part of coping with the real leadership challenge facing Australia today: how to rebuild confidence and re-energize the nation," Hilmer said.

Meanwhile, the Australian cabinet has lent its support to an ambitious proposed overhaul of the country's media laws, including plans to scrap cross-media ownership and foreign-investment restrictions. The decision paves the way for significant changes to the media landscape, the Australian Financial Review reported. However, the legislation would need the nod from a hostile Senate first, the newspaper said.

Communications Minister Richard Alston is expected to introduce amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act in parliament next month, aiming for a Senate vote in June, it said. The legislation would remove curbs on ownership of newspapers, television networks and radio stations in the one area, introduced in the mid-1980s by the former Labor government. Minimum levels of local news and information would be required where cross-media holdings involve either television or radio.

(Asia Times Online/Asia Pulse)