Australia’s newspapers black out front pages to protest curbs on press freedoms

Protesting against legislation that curbs press freedoms, Australia’s biggest newspapers blacked out their front pages on Monday.

The country’s parliament has been passing laws under the pretext of national security that impede the public’s right to know what the government does in its name, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said. “Journalism is a fundamental pillar of our democracy,” Paul Murphy, the chief executive of the industry union, was quoted as saying by Reuters. “It exists to scrutinise the powerful, shine a light on wrongdoing and hold governments to account, but the Australian public is being kept in the dark.”

Australia has no constitutional safeguards for free speech, although the national government added a provision to protect whistleblowers when it strengthened counter-espionage laws in 2018, Reuters reported. Journalists, however, say press freedoms remain restricted.

Matters came to a head in May, when the police raided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the home of a News Corp editor on suspicion of receiving national secrets. The police examined about 9,000 computer files at the ABC and sifted through the female editor’s underwear drawer, drawing widespread condemnation. The ABC has said the raid was related to its 2017 stories about accusations of military misconduct in Afghanistan, according to Reuters. News Corp has said the raid on its editor was regarding an article about government plans to spy on Australians’ emails, text messages, and bank accounts.