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Andrew Olle Media Lecture: ‘Add a public interest exemption to new laws’

Kate McClymont defends freedom of the press and the public's right to know.

2014-10-31_2340Sydney Morning Herald investigative reporter Kate McClymont criticised the government’s new anti-terror laws which threaten freedom of the press, during her Andrew Olle Media Lecture last night.

McClymont, a former reporter on Four Corners, was speaking at Australian Technology Park, in Redfern. She follows from previous speakers including Lisa Wilkinson, Mark Colvin, Alan Rusbridger, Laurie Oakes, Ray Martin, John Hartigan, Senator Helen Coonan, John Doyle, Chris Anderson, Harold Mitchell AO, Lachlan Murdoch, Kerry Stokes AO, Eric Beecher, John Alexander, Jana Wendt and David Williamson.

Here is an excerpt of her speech:

We must protect the public’s right to know and it is vital that a “public interest” exemption is added to these new laws. Lachlan Murdoch was spot on when recently he said of the new anti-terror laws: “We should be vigilant of the gradual erosion of our freedom to know, to be informed, and to make reasoned decisions in our society and our democracy and… to have the courage to act when our freedoms are threatened.”

But as journalists we should have the courage to act for more than the lofty notion of freedom of speech. We have a duty to be the voice of the powerless in our society, to stand up for them.

This should be why we do our job. The money is crap (mostly), the hours are long and the stress can be excruciating.

But as journalists we have the privilege of an insider’s view of what really happens in our society and we have the ability to change it.

Whether you are a war correspondent, a reporter on the local paper or an investigative journalist, you have the ability to make a difference, to hold people to account, to right wrongs.

And if that comes with a price I, for one, am happy to pay.

The speech will be televised on the ABC in November.

One Response

  1. There is something seriously wrong with a government when the public has to question bad laws like these. Ever had a situation when you’ve been ripped off, abused or hurt? If it’s government doing it, you’re bound to find every sneaky trick and a big brick wall up against you. Regardless of who is in power, when this sort of thing is rife, we need to just keep voting them out until someone who truly wants to serve the people in the right way gets in.

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