Monday, 5 November 2007
A report into Freedom of Information Laws and (media) free speech in Australia, commissioned by the Right to Know Coalition, has been released. Called the Report of the Independent Audit into the State of Free Speech in Australia, you can download it here (beware: big (336 page) pdf).
The media are breathlessly reporting that ‘more than 500 separate legal provisions in 335 different state and federal acts of Parliament are denying Australians access to a vast amount of information they should be able to see’. Numbers aside, I’ll be interested to see what kinds of information are limited, what grounds can be used to limit availability of information, and how the procedures for getting information are set up (are they complicated? simple?).
Obviously, I’ve not read it yet. Maybe more commentary when I have.
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2 Responses to “Freedom of Information/Speech Report Released”
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November 7th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Call me a cynic, but when the media are bleating about “freedom of speech”, what they’re really interested in is “freedom of the press”, and their ability to report on things that the government would rather keep under wraps. Not that I object to this – the media are an important part of government accountability, and the current FOI system is a joke, but I find it slightly disingenuous that the media are styling this argument as being about our freedom to speak rather than their freedom to publish.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I do know what you mean. In fact, while the report is called an independent audit into “the State of Free Speech in Australia”, I did consider a title ‘Freedom of Information Report’ issued. But then, the report is also about Whistleblowers’ protection, so I left the title as you now see it.
In any event, having run up against some of these barriers myself at times, I’m glad that someone more important than a mere academic is raising these issues in a coordinated, high profile kind of way. We do need to have more debate about free speech in Australia, and if self interest is the way to motivate that – so be it.