CANBERRA, Australia - Australia’s opposition on Wednesday called for a parliamentary inquiry into press freedom after police raids on a media organization’s Sydney headquarters and a journalist’s Canberra home seeking to uncover the source of government leaks. Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally called for the bipartisan Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to investigate whether the balance between press freedom and national security is right in legislation passed since the conservative government was first elected in 2013. There was also a “concern that only leaks embarrassing the government merit investigation while those that benefit the government do not,” Keneally wrote. Media organizations say the raids were aimed as much at intimidating the press. Keneally told ABC that the government’s “cavalier response” to the raids shows there is a “very real concern that freedom of the press is under attack in Australia.”ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Source: thestar June 12, 2019 03:56 UTC