If you are one of few remaining traditionalists who still like to start the day by holding a newspaper in your hands and checking the latest headlines, you may have noticed something strange about the front pages of Australia’s major publications on Monday. Some of the country’s biggest news outlets have come together to take a stand against government censorship.
The ‘Your right to know’ movement, which is made up of more than a dozen of the country’s top media companies and industry organisations, has banded together in a bid to highlight the fight for press freedom in Australia. To draw attention to their cause, publications including The Australian, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, have opted to run heavily redacted front pages today, featuring large black censorship bars covering the majority of the content.
According to the Herald Sun, who are one of the paper’s involved in today’s action, the coalition is campaigning for change to “six critical areas of law that is allowing a veil of secrecy to being thrown over matters important to all Australians”.
“You have a right to know what the governments you elect are doing in your name,” the Your Right to Know website reads. “But in Australia today, the media is prevented from informing you, people who speak out are penalised and journalism that shines a light on matters you deserve to know about is criminalised. This needs to change.”
According to new research quoted by the coalition, 87 per cent of Australians value a free and transparent democracy where the public is kept informed, but just 37 per cent believe this is happening in Australia.
“Australians have been slowly losing their right to know how their government operates and about issues that affect their families and finances,” the group writes on its website. “For the last 20 years, the federal government has been issuing tighter and tighter laws on what information is shared with the public.”
A video has also been released online and on television, with the clip debuting last night during popular Channel Nine show The Block, which says: “The tax office can take money directly out of people’s accounts, but you’re not allowed to know. The elderly are being abused and neglected in nursing homes, but you’re not allowed to know. The government can raid journalists for reporting the truth if it says you’re not allowed to know.
“It couldn’t happen in Australia? It’s happening now. When the government hides the truth from you, what are they covering up?”
This morning’s newspapers are brought to you by government secrecy provisions, misuse of FOI and stifling defamation laws. #righttoknow pic.twitter.com/XthXTaE0xV
— Chip Le Grand (@Melbchief) October 20, 2019
Speaking about the move on 2GB this morning, Nine CEO Hugh Marks told Alan Jones: “Nobody here is saying anybody should be above the law, the question is does the law serve the public interest. If the government operates on the basis of a culture which is keep things secret because we don’t want it being discussed then we as people, we as taxpayers, we as owners of the government miss out because we don’t have the information to make informed decisions.”
News Corp Australasia chair Michael Miller was also in the studio and said “it is frightening” to think the media is being silenced by the government.
Since the newspapers came off the printing presses on Monday morning, many Australians have taken to Twitter to express their views on the movement. Many were in support of the newspapers, with one user saying: “The government secrecy is the politicians way of hiding the dirt beneath a carpet so nobody sees what is going wrong. It’s just like sticking a Band Aid on a wound on your finger. Nothing is wrong if nobody can see it or finds out.”
Another wrote: “I’m with you all. It’s a disturbing trend…”
However others questioned the media’s motivations and pointed out the distrust among the public towards journalists and large media corporations, with one person saying: “Problem is the media are viewed as one of the most dishonest professions, with their motto ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, probably just above car salespeople & lawyers, only have to watch how they dramatise & exaggerate stories.”
While another wrote: “Too little, too late. Where were you during the election when Morriscum was getting away with lies, lies and more lies and nothing was said to call him out on them?”
The public campaign comes after raids on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, who is potentially facing criminal charges, and a separate raid on the ABC headquarters in relation to a report which detailed incidents of Australian special forces troops killing men and children in Afghanistan.