National security bills compound existing threats to media freedom

As the government considers changes to national security legislation Keiran Hardy looks at what today’s proposals would mean for the media if implemented, in a cross-posting from The Conversation.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) will publish its report on the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014 (Cth) sometime during this sitting of parliament. The bill, introduced in the last sitting of parliament, has attracted significant criticism for the potential impact of proposed offences on media outlets.

The main fear, fuelled by the fallout from the WikiLeaks and Snowden affairs, is that journalists could be imprisoned for reporting intelligence abuses or mistakes revealed by a “whistleblowing” intelligence officer, even when doing so would be in the public interest.

While the bill contains a wide range of proposed changes, these more specific concerns relate to the “special intelligence operations” (SIO) provisions. The proposed SIO regime would give ASIO officers civil and criminal immunity for acts done in the course of special undercover operations. These would be authorised by the Director-General or Deputy Director-General of Security.