Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to host media roundtable about press freedom reform

The roundtable will bring together media organisations for a discussion about press freedom issues in Australia and further options for reform.

Media companies will include ACM (the publisher of this newspaper), ABC, Newscorp and Nine Entertainment, along with media interest groups like the Australian Press Council, Alliance for Journalists' Freedom and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

The Albanese government said it intends to progress legislative reform as a priority.

Reforms will be informed by the reports on press freedom by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security of August 2020 and the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications of May 2021.

A review of all Commonwealth secrecy offences, as recommended by the Intelligence and Security Committee, is already underway, which will consider whether existing secrecy offences adequately protect public interest journalism and whistleblowers.

To ensure a full and frank discussion, the roundtable will be conducted under Chatham House Rules.

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Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said he looks forward to a "full and frank discussion" about press freedom issues in Australia.

"Journalists should never face the prospect of being charged or even jailed just for doing their jobs," Mr Dreyfus said.

"There is agreement across the Parliament and the community that improved protections are overdue. Unlike the former government, which ignored successive bipartisan committee reports, the Albanese government will progress press freedom reform as a priority."

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance said it would raise issues like defamation, whistleblower protection, freedom of information and the impact of national security laws on journalism during the roundtable on Monday.

The MEAA will be represented at the roundtable by the federal president of the union's media section, Karen Percy.

"There is a long shopping list of changes that are needed to protect the critical role of journalism in our democracy and this meeting will be an opportunity to push the Albanese government to begin taking action," Ms Percy said.

"We are concerned about the growing secrecy in government and the inability of journalists to do their jobs without fear of prosecution.

"The steady creep of national security laws into so many facets of journalists' work is a dangerous threat to press freedom, as is the lack of transparency around journalist information warrants.

"Sadly, little has changed since the notorious AFP raids of the ABC and the house of a News Corp journalist several years ago."

The MEAA also wants to see strengthened protections for sources and whistleblowers.

"Whistleblowers who play such an important role in working with journalists to expose abuses of power and corruption should be entitled to protections and journalist shield laws need to be harmonised across all jurisdictions. There is also an urgent need for reform of Freedom of Information laws," Ms Percy said.

"I will also use this meeting to bring to the attention of Mr Dreyfus the serious threat the ongoing pursuit by the US government of MEAA member Julian Assange poses to journalists and to press freedom around the world."