Australia

A joint statement by the Association of Progressive Communications, IFEX and 64 co-signatories at the UN-HRC 36 warns of the threat to human rights posed by recent attacks on the right to use encryption technology, in Turkey and across the globe.

The concentration of surveillance powers in Australia’s proposed super ministry was raised as a concern by the MEAA.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance is alarmed by the government push to force tech companies to break encrypted communications.

As Australian media prepares for even more job losses, can the Australian government do anything to protect quality journalism?

MEAA CEO Paul Murphy says: “While lawmakers’ efforts have focussed on criminalising legitimate public interest journalism and going after whistleblowers, long-standing press freedom concerns continue to be ignored.”

Australia and Papua New Guinea must review media relations after two separate but equally “shocking” bans on PNG press, says PFF, the Pacific Freedom Forum.

25 IFEX members question Australia’s detention of dissident journalists, cartoonists and actors at Manus Island.

Over the last decade, Australian audiences have witnessed the loss of much specialist TV, radio and digital content. Continual cuts are eroding the ability of the ABC to produce quality content and properly serve its Charter.

In September 2015, a coalition of international and Australian human rights groups launched a campaign on behalf of Kurdish Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, then held in immigration detention on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG) where he had been sent by Australian officials against his will.

The MEAA is concerned at an Australian government proposal to amend the Privacy Act that would make it an offence to “re-identify” government data sets.

How documentary filmmakers used black screens & actors to fight legal injunctions that threatened to silence their film.

When one of Australia’s most decorated journalists can be the subject of jokes about drowning her in an ice bucket, it highlights a culture where women in the media still struggle to be treated with respect at work.

Police raids in search of the source of government documents leaked to the media again show how press freedom in Australia is under attack.

The Australian government has been so determined to inoculate itself from embarrassment that it has developed a battery of laws to punish and imprison those who expose the truth, whether they are whistleblowers or journalists.

The MEAA is appalled that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has secretly sought to identify a journalist’s confidential sources by trawling through a journalist’s metadata.

The Australian union of creative professionals is using the countdown to World Press Freedom Day to galvanize people around recent changes that threaten press freedom and the public’s right to know.