The council would have power to alter or permanently ban articles. Disobedience would result in a fine or imprisonment for contempt of court, and there would be no appeal. As well as having the power to ban articles, the council would have the power to compel media to publish responses to stories.
Hal G.P. Colebatch
The Australian government steps up its war against a free press — and the Internet.
Australia is a nation where freedom of speech has appeared as solidly established as anywhere in the world.
Today, however, it is under a massive threat. This is all the more shocking because it is as head-on assault on Australia’s entire political culture of liberty and democracy.
In the latest development, the governing alliance of the leftist Australian Labor Party and the extreme leftist Greens have received an official report into media regulation recommending draconian controls.
The 470-page report, commissioned as part of the government’s vendetta against the Murdoch press, demands that the media be made more “accountable,” and that the government have the power to impose “professional standards.” The chairman of the inquiry that made the report, retired Federal Court Judge Roy Finkelstein, recommends a News Media Council be set up to license the press and to censor news reporting and political commentary.
Licensing the media has always been abhorrent in the English-speaking world. It was not contemplated even in Australia’s first days as a penal colony.
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