You’d be hard pressed to miss this week’s all-out campaign from the media sector on government attacks on press freedom. This remarkable collaborative effort should not be understated – to see Guardian Australia stand alongside the Daily Telegraph with aligned messaging and shared aims is virtually unprecedented in our increasingly polarised media landscape. But without a similarly concerted effort, we risk losing ground on broader issues of human rights that reach well beyond the newsrooms of journalists, and touch the daily lives of every Australian.
The dust has settled on the federal election, and advocates from all sectors are either crowing over their wins or licking their wounds. On the battleground for the internet, there is a much darker spectre looming. Over the coming year, Australia will rapidly be relegated to the backwaters of the global digital world. We will no longer have a functioning industry of security software manufacturers, nor will we have faith in the safety and security of our telecommunications systems.
A free press is a cornerstone of any democracy, with journalism playing an integral role in the transparency and debate that is so important to protecting and maintaining society. Increasingly, we are seeing journalists forced to comply with authoritarian government orders, and repressive regimes of secrecy and gagging designed to hamper the freedoms of the Third Estate.
We have witnessed two shocking raids by the Australian Federal Police on news outlets, both under the guise of protecting our national security.
We’re only a few days away from the Saturday reckoning of Election 2019, and it hasn’t been the best campaign for your human rights online. Here’s a quick overview of the major news stories, policies and announcements so far:
Australia will soon be relegated to the backwaters of the global digital community. We will no longer have a functioning security software industry, nor will we have faith in the safety of our telecommunications systems. Our elected representatives in Canberra have passed into law an obscene bill that will have long-lasting impacts on the infrastructure of the digital economy, and they don’t even seem to care.