DEFINING THE POWER OF PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM

Early in June 2019, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the apartment of News Corp editor Annika Smethurst. According to authorities, the raid aimed to uncover information related to a 2018 article revealing that the Australian Signals Directorate sought to spy on Australian citizens without their knowledge.

The following day, the AFP went onto raid the ABC's Sydney headquarters seeking information related to a series of stories aired in 2017 focusing on the gross misconduct by Australian military personnel in Afghanistan.

In the wake of the raids the Centre Alliance party, a centrist Australian political party, has recommended a "constitutional amendment" that will enable press freedom to be protected.

Just what this protection will look like, and how effective it will be, remains to be seen.

But this recommendation at least acknowledges the profound harm that intimidating and attempting to silence journalists can do at the expense of what's in the public interest.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/defining-the-power-of-public-interest-journalism