High profile human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has warned that leaders of oppressive countries were looking at Australia’s actions against journalists, suggesting that the recent police raids on the media could be used by less open countries as an excuse to clamp down even further on press freedoms. Foreign minister Marise Payne was put in an uncomfortable position overnight attending the opening session of a two day Global Conference for Media Freedom in London. She gave a speech saying Australia supported press freedoms, but her remarks only received polite applause…
The recent raids on ABC and a News Corp journalist have highlighted Australia’s clamp down on media freedoms. “Journalists all around the world are less safe if the rhetoric, or even policies or laws, of states that are supposed to be free are actually a threat to journalists in those countries.”