Press Freedom Takes a Hit

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott made the traditional and obligatory visit to Iraq this past week, something was missing.

A small flurry of Australian journalists have, in the past, kept pace with the visiting Prime Minister but this year they appear to have been left behind. In a controversial move Mr Abbott has elected to have the visit filmed by his own cameraman and distributed by his personal media team.

In previous years the team of journalists to accompany the Australian Prime Minister has been compiled by a number of journalistic networks throughout the country, with input from the Prime Minister himself, and has typically comprised of two photographers, one radio journalist, TV camera operators, one print journalist from News Corp and one from Fairfax.

Their task, as well as simply documenting the movements of the Prime Minister throughout the trip, has been to ask the controversial questions regarding relations between the two states and represent the view of the community back home which is often subverted as the elite battle it out in the negotiating room. The “pool crew” of journalists have, in a nutshell, served the purpose of protecting and voicing the Australian public interest in a place where it can often get lost.

However, this year that role was played by a paid prime ministerial assistant taking up a temporary new trade as a cameraman after two Australian news networks shared the cost of sending two journalists to Dubai in the hopes of accompanying the Prime Minister on his flight to Baghdad, only to be left at the runway. The footage was distributed by the Prime Minister's personal press team and lacked the usual barrage of questions from overzealous journalists hoping to capture the controversial moment or the heroic statement of the day.

The Australian media industry, as well as various concerned members of the public, have openly worried on social media that this move sets a dangerous precedent allowing officials to scrap freedom of the press and the Australian attitude of transparency in politics in the name of security.

What do you think?

By Erin Lawson