The Public’s Right to Know: The AJF promotes media freedom and the right of journalists to report the news in freedom and safety. This includes working with Australian governments to ensure legislation supports media freedom.
When journalists are silenced, democracy and human rights suffer. We campaign in the Asia–Pacific region, wherever journalists are censored, threatened, imprisoned or killed.
We’re the Alliance for
Journalists’ Freedom
The Public’s Right to Know: The AJF promotes media freedom worldwide and the right of journalists to report the news in freedom and safety. This includes working with Australian governments to ensure legislation supports media freedom.
When journalists are silenced, democracy and human rights suffer. We will campaign in the Asia Pacific region, wherever journalists are censored, threatened, imprisoned or killed.
We believe Parliament must introduce a Media Freedom Act. The Act should work in ways similar to the Human Rights Acts in Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT: that parliament must always consider human rights in passing any new legislation; that where possible, the courts must always interpret existing legislation in ways that are consistent with human rights; and that public servants must act to support human rights. Applied to media freedom, this approach would inject a positive legal obligation to consider media freedom in ways not currently available.
Click below to read our full act. We have also written a policy document that outlines the mechanics of the act in plain English.
A big obstacle to passing media freedom laws has been identifying that which deserves protection. In a world where anyone with a mobile phone is capable of producing journalism–like content, and where ‘citizen journalists’ claim as much legitimacy as traditional reporters in mainstream newsrooms, defining ‘who is a journalist’ no longer makes any sense.
Instead, the AJF believes the solution is to focus on the methods used to create information that serves the media’s Fourth Estate role. That is why we have chosen to define journalism as a process – a systematic way of gathering, organising and presenting information according to a generally accepted code of ethics and professional standards. Our definition requires accountability to that code, through an independent complaints process.
Our process definition creates an opportunity for industry to respond by using it as the basis for membership to a national association. It could admit those who show they know and understand journalistic methods, ethics and standards, and apply them routinely to their work.
Such a system of voluntary membership does not stop anyone from publishing. It merely helps recognise those who meet the required standard. Crucially, the courts could use membership as evidence that a person’s work should be treated as journalism and therefore deserves the protection of the Media Freedom Act. Nobody is necessarily excluded from legal cover, but the onus is on anyone who is not a member to demonstrate that they are working to the required standards.
Future of Journalism
What does the future of journalism in Australia look like? The disruption to journalism in the next twenty years will likely be greater than we’ve seen in the last twenty. If we don’t know where we are heading, how can we create a pathway to get there? The #FutureofJournalism series explores our options. The Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, in this fortnightly series, interviews leading thinkers on this from around the world.
The Board + Staff
Former journalist with 30 years experience. Now a corporate affairs consultant.
An award-winning journalist, author and academic. He was imprisoned in 2013/4 for 400 days while covering the unfolding political crisis in Egypt.
Director of Strategic Partnerships for UK-based Centre for Information Resilience’s Afghanistan project.
Co-founder of Women’s Agenda and CEO of the publication’s parent company, Agenda Media.
Chartered Accountant with over 15 years’ experience in sales, operations, business development and financial roles.
Policy and Communications expert with experience in professional associations and not-for-profit community campaigning. Law student (Juris Doctor).
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