by Leo Wiles
02 May 2014
Have I had too much coffee? Is my RSI returning? Sitting down to highlight World Press Freedom Day 3 May 2014, these are actually my biggest health issues.
For others, writing can be a deadly vocation. Last year, 71 journalists, 39 citizen journalists and 6 media assistants were killed. Another 87 were kidnapped, 2,160 journalists were threatened or physically attacked and 826 journalists and 127 bloggers and netizens were arrested.
Thankfully my celebrity profiles, health, wealth and lifestyle features have never led to torture, prison or bullets.
Sure, there were sleazy stars, a live volcano and death threats that anyone working in media in 1997 received following the untimely death of Princess Diana (which somehow became the responsibility of anyone carrying a press card). Never having written a word about the Princess of Hearts or taken a photo of her wasn’t relevant. Neither it seems in 2014 is the right of journalists to protect their sources – with seven requests for disclosure of sources submitted to the Australian courts last year.
Lobby group Reporters without Borders (RWB) views this move as so damaging that Australia slipped from 28 to 26th in the RWB’s 180 country World Press Freedom Index 2014. Citing: “In Australia, the lack of adequate legislative protection for the confidentiality of journalists’ sources continues to expose them to the threat of imprisonment for contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources.”
But is it time to break out the flak jackets or flee the country? Are we really likely to cop a fine or be brought up on charges of criminal contempt like senior political journalists Harvey and McManus in 2007 – a scant four years after the Australian Press Council charter proclaimed, “Everyone has the right of freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.
Here in the lucky country, we can mount our soapbox or hijack the internet to spruik our displeasure on May 3. It’s the day the UN has dedicated to celebrating and assessing the fundamental principles of press freedom, to pay tribute to those who’ve lost their lives in the line of duty and defend those who’ve had their liberty taken from them.
It’s also a day for reflecting on how much freedom we do have and to consider how we shall use it and who will be allowed to hear it.
Which leads me to ask: have you ever felt unsafe working as a journalist?
