Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2004, Zack de la Rocha, from Rage Against the Machine, dedicated this poem to journalists around the world:

Eyes Upon The Eyes

You're the eyes upon the eyes

and upon the batons

that pound voices and bones

that erase memories of home

You're the eyes upon the eyes

in the days before the fall

you're the eyes upon the eyes

that are watching us all

To witness the barricades and

the wire they place around our hearts

your document is proof that

there is a fire in the dark

You're the eyes upon the eyes

in the days before the fall

and it's your eyes that stop

their lies from burying us all.

I want to acknowledge the spirit and courage of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were seeking to bring to light the humanitarian crisis faced by the people of Syria, when they were captured. Their deaths and the plight of others being held by IS has shown in the most brutal fashion the danger faced by journalists working in many parts of the world.

In June we witnessed the incomprehensible sentencing of Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. After an unfair trial, each member of the trio was sentenced to between seven and 10 years in an Egyptian prison—simply for doing their job. A former UN legal colleague and friend, Amal Alamuddin, who represents Mohamed Fahmy, has written about this in a recent article for the Huffington Post entitled 'The anatomy of an unfair trial'. These travesties are only a few well-publicised instances adding to the disturbing trend of decreasing press freedom worldwide.

More than five years have passed since the brutal assassination of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge from Sri Lanka. This frank and fearless journalist, then editor of Sri Lanka's independent Sunday Leader,was gunned down in broad daylight. Due to increasing threats and violence directed against him, Lasantha had, incredibly, already accepted his murder by the government as inevitable and, just days after his death, the newspaper that he founded published his chilling posthumous editorial on the state of affairs in his country. Lasantha hoped that his murder—which remains unpunished to this day—would be seen 'not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration'. He wrote:

The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.

Sri Lankan journalists and media organisations continue to work in a climate of fear and violence. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the country fourth-worst for places where the murder of a journalist is likely to go unpunished.

Last year, it is known that 70 journalists were killed, but I fear that many more acts of oppression, intimidation, violence, and disappearances not only of journalists but also of other human rights defenders have gone unreported because the reporters have themselves been targeted and silenced. One of the consequences of such repression is that wider questions as to the absence of the rule of law and democratic institutions are increasingly stifled.

In its report Freedom of the press 2014: A global survey of media independence, Freedom House finds that media freedom has hit its lowest point in a decade. Reporters Without Borders has noted 'a tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the right to inform and be informed.' In Ethiopia, for instance, the 2009 anti-terror proclamation has been used to justify the arrest of journalists and members of the political opposition. This retrograde trend is not confined to lawless or war-torn regions. The rise of prosecutions of journalists in democratic countries such as the USA and even Australia in the name of national security or the 'war on terror' may be the thin edge of the wedge.

Last month, the government introduced a bill containing a new offence punishable by five years jail for any person who discloses information relating to special intelligence operations. This would apply even if the disclosure is in the public interest. Combined with inadequate whistleblower protection and the lack of shield laws, this will likely have a chilling effect on media freedom, stifling the ability of journalists to gather news and report fully.

Without all the information, the community cannot make fully informed judgements or demand accountability, and that is corrosive of good government. Studies have shown there is a strong correlation between low media freedom and poor political knowledge and participation. The decreasing plurality of voices in the Australian media landscape, the potential further reduction through government changes to cross-media ownership laws and the cuts to funding of the ABC and SBS are extremely concerning trends.

I again pay tribute to Steven Sotloff and James Foley, to Peter Greste and his colleagues, and to journalists everywhere for their commitment to the truth.