SYDNEY: Australia's leading newspapers were expected to publish on the front page on Monday to appear very drafted to protest against recent legislation restricting press freedoms, a rare example of the unity of the generally tribal media industry.
The head of the national News Corp unit of Rupert Murdoch, the Australian Financial Review editor Nine Entertainment and the government-funded Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) website were expected to show current news with most of the words turned off .
The protest was designed to publicly pressure the government to exempt journalists from laws that restrict access to confidential information, enact a system of freedom of information that works properly and raise the benchmark for defamation lawsuits.
The CEO of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said that people "should always suspect governments that want to restrict their right to know what is happening."
Global attention focused on media freedoms in Australia this year when a court order prevented the media from reporting that former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell had been convicted of charges of child sexual abuse.
Prosecutors are now seeking fines and jail sentences for three dozen Australian journalists and publishers for their coverage of the trial. Pell is appealing against his convictions.
The issue boiled again in June when police raided the ABC headquarters in Sydney and the home of a News Corp editor on suspicion of receiving national secrets.
The raids, which included the police examination of some 9,000 computer files on ABC and the scrutiny of the underwear drawer of the News Corp editor, resulted in an international conviction.
ABC said at the time that the raid in its office was related to the 2017 stories about allegations of military misconduct in Afghanistan. News Corp has said the raid on his employee was referring to an article about government plans to spy on the emails, text messages and bank accounts of Australians.
Posted on Dawn, October 21, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1512071/australian-newspapers-unite-against-media-curbs