7. Press Freedom and Access to information
Themes
There has been an almost universally glass–half–empty rhetoric in the commentaries on the deterioration in the press's freedom to report on matters of public interest that have featured in the first two iterations of this report. It is worthy of note, therefore, that there is enough good news in this year's report to suggest that the press freedom glass might now be half–full. We are in the midst of the transition process from the previous masters to the new masters at the federal level and it is too early to judge how much impact on press freedom such a change of government might have, but the trends are generally in the right direction—as the international bench–marking agencies suggest. Changes in the leadership of many of the state governments, with the retirement of a number of Premiers, and an election defeat, have brought in new state leaders who appear to be more intent on law reform to free up information—at least in their early days in office.
In the main report, Jack R Herman notes a number of areas where the situation has been ameliorated and where there is hope for further improvement. Nonetheless, pending a series of reviews, law reform commission reports, and other action by federal and state governments, many of the problems remain. Protection of personal privacy is one area where the threat of further deterioration is apparent—with the formalisation of proposals for a tort of invasion of privacy being proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission. In the absence of any constitutional or legislated protection of free speech, such a law would be a clear threat to the ability of the press to report on matters of public concern. The courts also remain behind the times, with a number of rules that limit the press's ability properly to report what should be open courts.
The report welcomes the publishers and broadcasters' Right to Know campaign and its attempts to counter the worst barriers against the freedom to communicate on matters of public interest.
There are a few notes of caution: in a separate paper, Rick Snell, Peter Timmins and Johan Lidberg note that proposed changes to Freedom of Information law have not as yet been introduced at the federal level, but The Right to Information in Queensland provides a blueprint for reform that should influence most jurisdictions. They sound a cautionary note on the wider questions of the availability of information, contrasting Australia's position on FOI, whistleblowers and journalists' shield laws with more liberal comparable democracies.