The government has restarted the conversation on media reform, with attorney-general Mark Dreyfus hosting a media roundtable this week.
Dreyfus told ABC Radio the media roundtable was the beginning of reform.
“There’s a lot of different areas [for reform] but chief among them is getting a better consideration of public interest on warrant issuing,” the attorney-general said.
Dreyfus plans to move onto the warrant matter later in 2023.
In 2019, ABC offices were raided by federal police over the Afghan Files stories.
When asked if he would consider media organisations’ calls for all warrants to be contestable, Dreyfus said the 2020 parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security had a different view.
“It opted for, on a bipartisan basis, a different approach to making sure that the public interest, that undoubtedly there is in freedom of the press, is protected,” the attorney-general said.
“They opted for a different route of having public interest advocates involved in the process of issuing warrants.
“And of course, as you’ve just pointed out, there’re media organisations that are suggesting a different process of what’s called contested warrants should be considered. That’s ahead of us, considering where we’re going to land on this.”
A strong and independent media matters – it's clear press freedom reform is overdue in Australia.
At today’s roundtable I'll hear from the frontline of this debate – journalists, publishers & those who defend & represent them.
This marks a crucial first step towards reform. pic.twitter.com/RIgYQrd4ib
— Mark Dreyfus (@MarkDreyfusKCMP) February 27, 2023
Private Media CEO Will Hayward was at the media roundtable. Private Media owns The Mandarin.
Other attendees at the roundtable included News Corp’s Michael Miller, Nine’s James ChesselL, ABC’s Laura Tingle, Free TV’s Bridget Fair, former Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste, and Schwartz Media’s Erik Jensen.
The roundtable was held under Chatham House rules, which means that what was said could not be attributed to any person.
The media roundtable comes as the government announced a funding agreement with the Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) through the News Media Assistant Program (News MAP).
The News MAP aims to increase evidence-based support for the sector.
Last October’s Budget pledged $4 million towards the development of the News MAP. The PIJI has received $900,000.
Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said public interest journalism was essential for informed citizens.
“People need access to accurate and reliable journalism on issues that matter,” Rowland said.
“The News MAP will guide and inform government support for public interest journalism and media diversity, including with information about the state of the news media landscape across the country.”
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