'The world's most secretive democracy': Peter Greste on Australia's press freedom problem

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.Today’s edition features journalist and press freedom advocate Peter Greste, who became a global figure of attention in 2014 when he was held captive by Egyptian authorities for more than a year on baseless terrorism accusations.Why Peter Greste is chasing a media freedom lawPeter Greste wears many hats - former foreign correspondent, journalist, academic, activist, press freedom advocate and author. He was hailed as an icon for press freedom around the world when he and two Al Jazeera colleagues were imprisoned in Egypt on bogus charges.Along with a journalism teaching role at Sydney’s Macquarie University, his mission now is to bolster journalism in Australia through his role as executive director of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.In conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes and Seja Al Zaidi, Greste discusses Australia’s lack of a fully democratic press, how he coped with being locked in a claustrophobic Cairo prison cell, the foibles of the Australian Press Council, AI’s impact on journalism and why he believes would-be journalists should not focus on the craft at university.“Superficially, I think that our press is reasonably free. If you scratch beneath the surface, what you realise is that Australia has some of the most restrictive legislation on earth when it comes to media freedom,” Greste says.“We are the only country in the democratic world that doesn't have press freedom or freedom of speech written into its constitution in any meaningful sense. It's implied in our constitution through what's called the implied right of political communication, but even that is contested. So without any local, domestic equivalent of the American First Amendment, which guarantees press freedom and freedom of speech, what we've seen is all sorts of national security legislation that both directly and indirectly intrudes on the ability of journalists to do their jobs. It criminalises a lot of otherwise perfectly legitimate journalistic investigation.”The Alliance for Journalists Freedom was founded by Greste, communications consultant and former journalist Peter Wilkinson, and lawyer Chris Flynn with the aim of a Media Freedom Act to better protect reporting in Australia. The Alliance recently received a $500,000 donation via independent outlet Crikey following its victorious defamation defence against Lachlan Murdoch.“What our Media Freedom Act would do is inject a positive obligation to consider media freedom at every stage of the judicial process and the bureaucratic process,” he says.“What we've done is written a clause that says that if you are producing journalism according to a set of professional standards, then you deserve the right to be assumed by the courts to deserve protection in law, and that it's up to the investigating agencies, whether it's ASIO or the Australian Federal Police or any other of the agencies, to show the courts why you have failed in your obligation to live up to professional standards.”Greste, a part-time professor of journalism at Sydney’s Macquarie University, also expressed concerns about the pace of evolution the media industry is experiencing compared to changes to what is being taught to undergraduate students.“The craft skills that you need are changing so quickly that those skills are best left to the news organisations themselves. In my view, what's more important are the critical thinking skills, the literacy skills, the civic education, the understanding of politics, the understanding of the way the law works, the way the courts work,” he says.“It's the ability to critically think about stories and analyse them and place them in context in Australian politics and society. That's what makes good journalists. Everything else is window dressing.”Audio production was courtesy of Abe’s Audio, the people to talk to about voiceovers, sound design and podcast production.Message us: [email protected] a great day. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unmade.substack.com