26 February 2002
CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENTS THREATEN PRESS FREEDOM
The Australian government's proposal to amend the country's Criminal Code has come under fire from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its local affiliate Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), who say it threatens whistle blowers and journalists and "stifle[s] public debate."
The proposed Criminal Code Amendment (Espionage and Related Offences) Bill 2001 makes it an offence to communicate "an official record of information or official information" to "a person to whom he or she is not authorised to communicate it or make it available."
It also makes it an offence to receive official information, meaning that both public servants who leak information and journalists who receive leaked information would be threatened by this legislation, says MEAA.
IFJ and MEAA are urging the government to remove the amendments, saying it should not use the war on terrorism to crack down on legitimate journalistic work. MEAA says the government claims that the proposed legislation was introduced last September in response to a 1991 inquiry into the Commonwealth Crimes Act.
However, the bill does not incorporate a key recommendation by the inquiry that a wide-ranging provision in Section 70 of the Act - prohibiting the disclosure of official information - be replaced by one that is narrower, says MEAA.
To view the proposed bill, see
http://www.aph.gov.au.
For more information, see
www.alliance.org.au and
www.ifj.org.
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