The biggest newspapers in the country ran front pages on Monday made up to appear heavily redacted, in a protest against legislation that restricts press freedoms, a rare show of unity by the usually partisan media industry. Australia has no constitutional safeguards for free speech, although the government added a provision to protect whistleblowers when it strengthened counter-espionage laws in 2018. Media groups say press freedoms remain restricted. Parliament has long been passing laws in the guise of national security that impeded the public’s right to know what the government did in its name, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) said. “Journalism is a fundamental pillar of our democracy,” said Paul Murphy, the chief executive of the industry union.

Source: Huffington Post October 21, 2019 03:00 UTC