A Cameroonian journalist and press freedom activist has been denied a visa to speak in Australia. Mimi Mefo Takambou was invited to speak to the Integrity 20 conference at Griffith University, Brisbane, on Friday 25 October. She was to give a keynote titled Without Fear or Favour and then participate in a panel discussion about … Read More
Incident
University sues after whistleblower speaks to media
Murdoch University is suing an academic after he blew the whistle on falling admission standards. Associate Professor Gerd Schröder-Turk spoke to Four Corners for an investigation into international student admissions which aired in May 2019. He said that universities are setting students up to fail when they enrol those without the necessary language skills. He … Read More
Al Jazeera warned about foreign interference laws
The Australian Government sent a letter to Al Jazeera warning that it should be careful not to breach foreign interference laws in its reporting. Managing director Giles Trendle received the letter in June. It concerned a documentary, How to Sell a Massacre, in which an Al Jazeera journalist named Rodger Muller went undercover to infiltrate … Read More
Government sent Nine a warning letter over foreign interference laws
The Australian Government sent Nine a letter warning that the company should pay closer attention to foreign interference laws after it broadcast footage gathered by the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera. The story showed the then One Nation candidate for Queensland Steve Dickson in a strip club in Washington DC. He makes derogatory comments to and … Read More
French journalist and crew arrested, charged while covering Adani protest
Four French media workers have been charged with trespass while covering protests against a new Adani coal mine. Journalist Hugo Clément, producer Guillaume Durand and cameramen Clément Brelet and Victor Peressentchensky were filming near the Abbot Point port near Bowen, Queensland. They are in Australia filming a documentary series about the world’s oceans. At 7.00am … Read More
Tax office whistleblower facing significant jail time
A whistleblower could be jailed for up to 161 years for revealing misconduct in the Australian Taxation Office. Richard Boyle, 43, faces charges including using a listening device without consent and making a record of protected information. In April 2018 Boyle, a debt collector at the ATO, was a source for a joint Australian Broadcasting … Read More
Dozens of journalists, editors facing contempt of court charges in Pell case
As many as 100 journalists were issued show cause notices in February, accused of breaching the suppression order placed over the trial of Cardinal George Pell. In June 2017 Pell was charged over historical sex offences. He was committed to face the charges over multiple trials in May 2018, the first of which began in … Read More
Police target ABC journalists, source over national security story
Australian Federal Police are investigating two ABC journalists and their source over a 2017 story about possible war crimes. In July 2017 journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark published The Afghan Files, a seven-part series about Australian troops’ conduct in Afghanistan. The story was based on documents leaked to the ABC and alleged, among other … Read More
Radio presenter threatened over anonymous leak
Radio presenter Ben Fordham said that the Department of Home Affairs threatened him after he aired a story based on an anonymous leak from a government source. On Monday 3 June Fordham said on air that a source in the department had told him that up to six asylum seeker boats from Sri Lanka were … Read More
AFP raid journalists’ home seeking source
Australian Federal Police raided the home of News Corp political editor Annika Smethurst seeking to identify the source of a leak. In April 2018 Smethurst revealed that the public servants within the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), which collects foreign intelligence, proposed giving the agency new powers that would allow it to spy on Australians. The … Read More