Warning On Sedition Laws
The Age
Tuesday May 30, 2006
JOURNALISTS, cartoonists, artists and filmmakers should be freed from the threat of prosecution for commenting on Government policy under sedition laws, the Australian Law Reform Commission says.
The commission wants the term "sedition" removed from the statute books, and says laws outlawing incitement to violence against the government or community groups should be redrafted.Releasing a discussion paper containing 25 reform proposals, the commission's president, David Weisbrot, said yesterday the aim was to draw a line between free speech and the criminal law. "There is no reason these offences, which properly target the urging of force or violence, cannot be framed in such a way to avoid capturing dissenting views or stifling the work or journalists, cartoonists, artists and filmmakers, either directly or through the 'chilling effect' of self-censorship," he said.The nation's biggest news organisations have slammed the new laws as a danger to media freedom, and want them repealed or amended.Fairfax (owner of The Age), News Ltd and Australian Associated Press have together condemned the laws' "excesses" as they relate to publishers, and called for a media exemption to guarantee a free press.Fairfax's corporate affairs director, Bruce Wolpe, welcomed the commission's proposals yesterday, saying they had vindicated Fairfax's concerns. "The Law Reform Commission is recommending the effective repeal of the sedition laws," he said. "It has explicitly recognised the profound threat the sedition laws pose to a free press, and seeking further protections for the media." The controversial laws, intended to deal with incitement to carry out acts of terror, were pushed through Parliament late last year as part of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
© 2006 The Age
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