Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar
Australia has ranked among the top 30 nations in recent world press freedom surveys published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom House and is broadly regarded as a substantially free Western liberal democracy. This article considers how the methodologies of those organisations assess the...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Auckland University of Technology
2015
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| Online Access: | https://pjreview.aut.ac.nz/articles/censorship-australia-intrusions-media-freedom-flying-beneath-international-free-expression http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12797 |
| _version_ | 1848748176559833088 |
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| author | Pearson, M. Fernandez, Joseph |
| author_facet | Pearson, M. Fernandez, Joseph |
| author_sort | Pearson, M. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Australia has ranked among the top 30 nations in recent world press freedom surveys published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom House and is broadly regarded as a substantially free Western liberal democracy. This article considers how the methodologies of those organisations assess the impact upon media freedom of a range of recent decisions and actions by Australian politicians, judges and government agencies. There is considerable evidence of a shift towards official secrecy and suppression of information flow. However, according to this analysis such developments are unlikely to impact significantly on Australia’s international ranking in media freedom indices. This article uses the methodologies of RSF and Freedom House to explore whether the international free expression organisations’ criteria are justifiably weighted towards violence against journalists, their imprisonment and formal anti-press laws and might allow for a nuanced comparison of other evidence of constraints on the news media in developed democracies. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:00:53Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-12797 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:00:53Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Auckland University of Technology |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-127972017-01-30T11:32:53Z Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar Pearson, M. Fernandez, Joseph Australia has ranked among the top 30 nations in recent world press freedom surveys published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Freedom House and is broadly regarded as a substantially free Western liberal democracy. This article considers how the methodologies of those organisations assess the impact upon media freedom of a range of recent decisions and actions by Australian politicians, judges and government agencies. There is considerable evidence of a shift towards official secrecy and suppression of information flow. However, according to this analysis such developments are unlikely to impact significantly on Australia’s international ranking in media freedom indices. This article uses the methodologies of RSF and Freedom House to explore whether the international free expression organisations’ criteria are justifiably weighted towards violence against journalists, their imprisonment and formal anti-press laws and might allow for a nuanced comparison of other evidence of constraints on the news media in developed democracies. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12797 https://pjreview.aut.ac.nz/articles/censorship-australia-intrusions-media-freedom-flying-beneath-international-free-expression Auckland University of Technology restricted |
| spellingShingle | Pearson, M. Fernandez, Joseph Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title | Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title_full | Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title_fullStr | Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title_full_unstemmed | Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title_short | Censorship in Australia: Intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| title_sort | censorship in australia: intrusions into media freedom flying beneath the international free expression radar |
| url | https://pjreview.aut.ac.nz/articles/censorship-australia-intrusions-media-freedom-flying-beneath-international-free-expression http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/12797 |