US media stood united under attack: Should Australia follow?
Major US news organisations took a stand when their rivals came under political attack. Similar action from Australian media is long overdue, experts say. In September, US President Donald Trump raised the stakes of his contentious relationship with the media by abruptly banning CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House over what he […]
Navigating mountains, despair and politics: Reporting on the Nepal-Tibet floods
In the final week of August, Rachel Clayton was in India reporting on a fire that had broken out in a maternity ward in Pakistan and left several babies dead. Then the newswires started flashing: something was happening in Nepal. When clips of what looked like a massive landslide or flood demolishing a border crossing […]
‘Dismantling’ of democracy chipping away at press freedom
Peter Greste was no stranger to threats of violence and deportation. After all, much of his career as a foreign correspondent was spent investigating everything from drug trafficking to government corruption allegations while working in some of the most hostile regions to public interest journalism. But his 2013 arrest in Egypt still took him by […]
The call for help that paid off for the Guardian, and what’s next
It’s a familiar tale; new technologies take root, and existing trades must adapt or die. News media transformed several times over the centuries to keep up with newfangled inventions, from the printing press to the internet. But the tech giants who enjoyed meteoric growth over recent years have left less room for the news industry, […]
Senate Press Freedom Inquiry
Following Australian Federal Police raids on the home of journalist Annika Smethurst and of the ABC’s Sydney newsroom June 2019, the Senate’s Standing Committees on Environment and Communications commenced an inquiry into the impact of law enforcement powers on press freedom, with particular reference to the laws and protections for disclosing and reporting sensitive information. […]