Australian journalists and whistle-blowers are under attack by the federal government like never before and the only thing the old media have done is the weak and pathetic “Right to Know” campaign they rolled out last Sunday night (20/10/19). It’s achieved nothing other than highlight the hypocrisy and lies of the old Australian media which has resulted in them getting a hiding on social media.
The old media started their “Right to Know” campaign against the federal government claiming they are being silenced. The old media say they aren’t being allowed to inform the public of all the facts because of threats of defamation claims and being raided by the police.
But it is the old media who are just as bad via their own lying, deceiving and self-censoring. Social media have been quick to point out the lies and many stories that the old media wouldn’t publish and in many cases still won’t publish when there is clearly a public interest to do so.
The list of stories the old media wouldn’t report, or only some will report, is a mile long and includes, but is not limited to:
- The Angus Taylor / Barnaby Joyce Watergate fraud
- The Angus Taylor Grassgate scandal
- Almost anything and everything about fraudster and sexual predator Barnaby Joyce
- Abuse of the law by Kerry Stokes and Seven West Media
- Nine Chairman Peter Costello making $millions from lobbying the federal government and his good mate Scott Morrison
- News Corp in effect being accused of treason when journalist Anthony Klan resigned in May 2019.
- SMH editor Lisa Davies publishing an article calling for the jailing of journalist Shane Dowling for reporting the truth.
I’ll stop there but feel free to add more in the comment section below. The problem has been obvious for years.
The Guardian reported on Monday (21/10/19) in relation to the Right to Know campaign:
Now Australia’s major media organisations are joining forces to demand a minimum set of changes, fighting back against more than 60 pieces of legislation introduced over the past two decades that effectively criminalise journalism and penalise whistleblowing.
We have six core demands:
- The right to challenge the government’s application for warrants against journalists and media organisations, before they are issued.
- Exemptions for journalists from laws that would put them in jail for doing their jobs, including the security laws enacted over the last seven years.
- Adequate legislated protections for public sector whistleblowers.
- A new regime to limit which documents can be stamped secret.
- Reform of the freedom of information regime.
- Reform to laws that make Australia the defamation capital of the world. (Click here to read more)
The old media are doing too little too late. I’ve been in a legal war with Kerry Stokes and the courts who have been trying to silence me for the last few years and the old media have done bugger all to back me up and now the government is going after the old media so I have no sympathy for them. But in saying that the battle line against the government has to be drawn and we all have to join the battle otherwise the situation will only get worse.
The old Australian media should have taken decisive and prolonged action back on the 4th of June 2019 when the AFP raided the ABC which ignited the current campaign. I wrote an article at the time titled “Australian media cry wolf as the Federal Police raid the ABC and a News Corp journalist’s home.” That’s all the media seem to be doing, crying wolf all the time.
What if the media in Canberra refused to do interviews with any of the government MP’s and Senators until they introduced laws that protected journalists and whistleblowers. In the short-term the government might hold the line but in the medium to long-term the government would buckle.
The hypocrisy of the old media running the “Right to Know” campaign is scandalous given one of the biggest abusers of silencing journalists and jailing journalists is Kerry Stokes and Seven West Media which he controls. I’ve lost count how many non-publication, suppression orders Kerry Stokes and his companies have taken out against me and he has done the same against others. Stokes and his companies have threatened defamation proceedings literally against dozens, if not hundreds, of Australian journalists. And then, of course, Stokes and Chief Justice Tom Bathurst had me jailed twice and Stokes is trying to do so again.
While it is hard to get enthusiastic to support the old media something has to be done and we’re doing our bit at this website reporting the truth, and when attacked for doing so, we’re holding the line and not buckling.
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