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Freedom of the Press Links Following work done by second-year Journalism students at RMIT, the Council now offers a series of links to sites of interest to those with an interest in Australian freedom of the press issues. There are links dealing with defamation law, privacy matters, the use of news photos and restrictions on press freedom. More links will be added subsequently. Defamation Media Law Workstation: Comprehensive listing of Australian defamation law and commentary, created by the University of Technology, Sydney. Window on the Law: The Australian Attorney-General's Department website. Contains many relevant defamation documents including transcripts of the High Court's Lange and Theophanous decisions. Lawlink NSW: The NSW Attorney-General's Department search engine. It contains various reports on defamation reform, including Report 11 (1971), Working Paper 1 (1968) and Report 75 (1995). Communications Law Centre: Contains information about defamation and humor, and about right of reply. Arts Law Centre of Australian: General information on current defamation law. see also Return to [ return to top ] Privacy Australian Privacy Commissioner's Site: An excellent starting place with many relevant links to Australian and overseas privacy groups (government and private sectors). Contains full texts of privacy legislation and related policies. Includes information on rights and how to make complaints. It also tracks changes to privacy policy and the connections between private and public privacy laws and how this relates to the media. New Zealand Privacy Commissioner's site: This site is of interest because the projected Australian Privacy legislation will be based upon New Zealand's Act. Australian Privacy Charter Council's preamble: This site is based at ANU. It also leads to academic Roger Clarke's home page on privacy. Privacy International: This is one of the most authoritative privacy sites on the net. Country by country index, issues and links, publications and plenty of resources. Excellent coverage of international privacy news. Not a lot of information on media intrusion. Electronic Frontiers Australia: This online free speech lobby group ran a strong campaign against the Federal Government's online services amendments, which come into effect in 2000. It is also interested in privacy issues. NSW Privacy Commissioner: Relevant only to New South Wales, and not highly detailed. Privacy and Personal Information Protection Bill: This Hansard transcript from NSW Parliament in September 1998 is useful to gauge recent debate about policy making re privacy. Media Awareness Network: A Canadian site that is a useful resource. Ofcom (UK): Ofcom is Britain's statutory regulatory body for radio and television. Its site covers a range of issues, including complaints re invasion of privacy. see also Return to [ return to top ] Ethical issues in using news images Guidelines Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance: The MEAA's website. Go to "Hot Topics" on the left-hand toolbar, and select the AJA Code of Ethics link. Includes pointers on the use of photographs. Poynter.org: The ethical issues in photojournalism. Griffith University: "A picture of controversy": A look at Pulitzer prize-winning photographs of war and human tragedy, and why some US newspapers refused to run them. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading & Communication Digest #49: http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/digests/d49.html "Media Ethics: Some Specific Problems": A brief bibliography of sources re media images and ethics. [ return to top ] September 11 Poynter.org: A Lens on Life and Death. American Press Institute.org: A pictorial news executive's hard-hitting look at the ethical decisions involved in running images from the September 11 attack and other shocking events over the years, including the public suicide of a local official. [ return to top ] Other Case Studies Poynter.org: "When Disturbing Photos Run": Shows how the Detroit Free Press covered the murder of a baby, and the pictures they chose to run with the story. Divided into sections, it shows how the newspaper reacted to the ethical issues raised. Poynter.org: "What would you do?": another actual case study, which includes guidelines for pictorial editors. Australian Press Council: "Case Study 4: Dad Slain": A fictional case study regarding the front-page photo of a murder victim and the complaints filed. Includes questions to consider when reporting violent tragedies and crimes. The Project for Excellence in Journalism: Columbine shootings A case study of the local and national television coverage of the Columbine shootings. Contains links to teaching notes and appendices. [ return to top ] Digital Manipulation National Union of Journalists: "If you Mac it, mark it!" Launch of a campaign by the British journalists' union to encourage disclosure of digital manipulation of images.. Poynter.org: An interesting case study of how a sports photo was manipulated in order to run it as a cover photo. Return to [ return to top ] Restrictions on Press Freedom Australia Communications Law Centre: Covers all sorts relating to media including free speech. Resources include research papers and submissions/articles Gazette of Law and Journalism: Listing cases and reports on things including defamation and contempt. Subscription for this site is expensive but excellent if you can afford it. [ return to top ] International Bodies Human Rights Watch: The Human Rights Watch reports on press freedom around the world including Iran, Jordan Chile and Egypt. The Freedom Forum Online: Includes a daily media news summary drawn from a variety of newspapers and links to press related Supreme Court cases. Committee to Protect Journalists: CPJ is a non-profit organisation of journalists banded together to protect free press around the world. It monitors more than 100 countries with a country database of up-to-date records of press freedom violations, and links to other related sites. International Press Institute: Lots of links and reports looking at media developments, changes and updates. Freedom House: Freedom House is an organisation fighting for policies to defend and secure freedom. Includes the Press Freedom Survey 1999 (http://www.freedomhouse.org/pfs99/pfs99.pdf) which rates countries performance in press freedom and an essay on the state of press freedom The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: The site includes up-to-date examples of press freedom cases, mainly in America but also abroad. It also has lists of on-line publications and topical guides on the First Amendment and FOI. World Press Freedom Committee: The WPFC is the watchdog on press freedom for UNESCO, the United Nations, OSCE and European Union. The site has a listing of members of the Co-ordinating Committee of Press Freedom organisation and links to their other sites. The WPFC also lists criteria for press freedom. [ return to top ] United States Student Press Law Centre: Non-profit organisation providing legal advice to student media and journalism educators. The site provides an "on-line legal clinic" with advice on libel/privacy laws, copyright, freedom of information and cyberlaw. There is a specific information on press freedom for college and high school publications American Civil Liberties Union: This resources includes information about the American Freedom of Information Act including a description of how the act works, what it does plus exemptions and costs. It tells you how to write a letter requesting documents and how to make an appeal. Includes Federal Government Agency addresses and a list of agencies that hold FOI records. Informative and easy-to-read. Inner City Press: Looks at freedom of information in America- relevant links to other bodies. [ return to top ] Other Countries Digital Freedom Network: Internet based human rights site that gives voices to little-known activists. Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre: Reports on restrictions to press freedom in Israel along West Bank and Gaza Strip. Outline and introudction only available for downloading as at 23 March. The North South Institute: Canadian site profiles the worst offenders of censorship in the world under United Nations. Links to in-depth look at how each of these countries restrict press freedom. Law Research-Internet Library: An Internet Law Library, which charges fees. Includes the constitutions and case searches from a list of 240 countries - http://www.lawresearch.com/v3/cinter5.htm Press Freedom Monitoring Centre: The site has been established by the Polish Journalists' Association and has an English version. Of particular interest is the document "Law vs. Media", a report about legal problems and the Polish Media, which can be downloaded in Word format [ return to top ] see also Return to |
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