‘Press freedom isn’t being served’: Peter Greste speaks to Crikey on the need for media law reform

Australia’s media landscape and harsh defamation laws are failing democracy, one of the nation’s leading press freedom advocates has argued. Peter Greste, director and spokesperson of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, says the government needs to do more to support a healthy media landscape.

“We need to rethink the way that the system functions and redesign it in a way that prioritises the public interest in good information and good journalism over and above any commercial interests,” Greste told Crikey.

The not-for-profit alliance, which helps develop legislation to support media freedom and campaigns for media rights in the Asia-Pacific region, will receive any surplus donated to Crikey’s GoFundMe fundraiser — established to cover costs against Lachlan Murdoch’s defamation lawsuit. The fundraiser has, as of this morning, passed the $300,000 mark, with former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull making sizeable donations. Crikey estimates $3 million is needed in legal fees. 

The fight for press freedom and protection for journalists is a personal one: Greste spent more than 400 days behind bars in Egypt on terrorism charges while on assignment with Al Jazeera. He’s also worked for the BBC and is now a professor of journalism at Macquarie University. He was formerly the UNESCO chair in journalism and communication at the ​​University of Queensland. 

“The whole point of press freedom is to give the public access to a wide range of high-quality information so that they can make informed decisions from an array of sources,” he said.

“[Australians] have access to a very narrow range of sources. So in that regard, press freedom isn’t being served.” 

It comes down to negative and positive freedom, he said — freedom from and freedom to. While Australia has freedom from government interference in media organisations, Australians don’t have the freedom to access diverse sources. Greater government intervention would support a healthy media landscape in Australia, he said.

The country’s harsh defamation laws were another concern: “Media companies far too often close legitimate journalistic reporting down not necessarily because it’s illegitimate, but because of the [potential defamation] costs.” 

Greste is calling for a “thorough” review into the way defamation laws work, arguing that in their current form they stifle fair comment criticism of public figures. 

This story was updated at 5 pm, August 29, to include Peter Greste’s current job.