The federal government has agreed to establish an inquiry into press freedom following calls for better protection for journalists but it’s already facing resistance.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security will run the inquiry to determine any changes to security laws "to better balance the need for press freedom with the need for law enforcement".
However, Australia's most senior media executives; Hugh Marks, Nine CEO, Michael Miller, News Corp Australia executive chair, and David Anderson, ABC MD, have called for legislative reform without an inquiry.
The areas they targeted; the right to contest any kind of search warrant on journalists or news organisations before the warrant is issued, that public sector whistleblowers be adequately protected with current laws to be changed.
They also called for a new regime that limits which documents can be stamped ‘secret’, a proper review of Freedom of Information laws, along with the exemption of journalists from the national security laws enacted over the last seven years that can put them in jail for doing their jobs.
“All this can happen quickly without the need for a parliamentary inquiry,” Miller said at the time.
“Prime Minister Morrison has said that if there is evidence that there is a need for improvement to press freedom laws then he is ‘open to it.’ Prime Minister, the evidence is in.”
The media heads came together after police raids on journalists at the ABC and News Corp.
The inquiry suggested by the government is facing push back from the Labor party which wants a new parliamentary joint committee.
Labor senator Kristina Keneally says such an inquiry would look into the “appropriate balance between the public's right to know, the freedom of the press and Australia's national security".
The areas of focus includs the disclosure and reporting of sensitive and classified information and protection for whistleblowers.
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