
Interview
Perspectives: World Press Freedom Day in Australia and Beyond
By Clare Manera
In honour of World Press Freedom Day, MEAA's Karen Percy contributed this article, sharing her thoughts on the key challenges and opportunities for advancing press freedom globally.
Hear from New Zealand union, E tū, in tomorrow's Aotearoa Media Alert. Contact [email protected] to subscribe.

Media freedom is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy in delivering on the public's right to know what governments in particular are doing in their name. Since 1993, journalists around the globe have marked World Press Freedom Day on 3rd May as a reminder to governments everywhere of the need to commit to media freedom and resist attempts to constrain the media. It’s also the day we pause to remember journalists who have lost their lives in the pursuit of a story and those who are imprisoned for their work.
As the union for Australia’s journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has played a strong role in campaigning for press freedom at home and around the world through our affiliation with the International Federation of Journalists. In recent years, Australia’s standing in press freedom has had an overall decline. In 2023, we were ranked 27th in the world for press freedom by Reporters Sans Frontieres. When whistleblowers are prosecuted for revealing wrongdoing by governments and corporations; when defamation is weaponised to prevent scrutiny; when information that should be publicly available is inaccessible or wrongly marked top secret; and when the basic role of journalism is criminalised on ‘national security grounds’ - it is the public who loses out.
MEAA has consistently called for a range of reforms to improve press freedom, but despite some positive rhetoric, we have yet to see much in the way of real action from any level of government in Australia. Over the past 12 months, we have also been disappointed to see media organisations themselves fail to uphold press freedom by failing to live up to appropriate ethical standards and buckling to external pressure when the work of their staff has come under attack. Employers have censored and disciplined journalists in response to external criticism and intimidation from unaccountable lobbyists, politicians, or big business who want to control the narrative on important issues of public interest. This has a chilling effect on other journalists that they too may be punished for stepping out of line, forcing them to compromise on their duty to the public to report the truth without fear or favour.
This year will be the sixth World Press Freedom Day that Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has spent in Belmarsh Prison near London. Beyond our immediate and urgent concerns for Assange’s health and wellbeing, his extradition and prosecution by the United States would set a disturbing global precedent for the suppression of press freedom and would constitute an assault on the public’s right to know. It would mean that any journalist, anywhere in the world, could be charged and extradited for handling any information that the US government classifies as "secret". The only real and conceivable path to freedom for Assange is for the US government to discontinue its prosecution. MEAA continues to call on the Albanese government to do all it can to secure his release from the US.
World Press Freedom Day 2024 cannot pass without also acknowledging the conflict in Gaza, where almost 100 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives since 7th October last year. Dozens more have been wounded or are missing. Twice as many journalists have been killed in Gaza under the Israeli offensive than were killed worldwide in 2022. MEAA supports the IFJ in calling on the Israeli Defence Force to do its utmost to safeguard journalists and media professionals and condemns the targeting or deliberate murder of journalists. We also pay our respects to the 15 journalists and media workers who have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
'Perspectives' is a Telum Media submitted article series exploring topics related to the industry. If you would like to contribute a piece for our Perspectives series, contact [email protected]
Hear from New Zealand union, E tū, in tomorrow's Aotearoa Media Alert. Contact [email protected] to subscribe.

Media freedom is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy in delivering on the public's right to know what governments in particular are doing in their name. Since 1993, journalists around the globe have marked World Press Freedom Day on 3rd May as a reminder to governments everywhere of the need to commit to media freedom and resist attempts to constrain the media. It’s also the day we pause to remember journalists who have lost their lives in the pursuit of a story and those who are imprisoned for their work.
As the union for Australia’s journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has played a strong role in campaigning for press freedom at home and around the world through our affiliation with the International Federation of Journalists. In recent years, Australia’s standing in press freedom has had an overall decline. In 2023, we were ranked 27th in the world for press freedom by Reporters Sans Frontieres. When whistleblowers are prosecuted for revealing wrongdoing by governments and corporations; when defamation is weaponised to prevent scrutiny; when information that should be publicly available is inaccessible or wrongly marked top secret; and when the basic role of journalism is criminalised on ‘national security grounds’ - it is the public who loses out.
MEAA has consistently called for a range of reforms to improve press freedom, but despite some positive rhetoric, we have yet to see much in the way of real action from any level of government in Australia. Over the past 12 months, we have also been disappointed to see media organisations themselves fail to uphold press freedom by failing to live up to appropriate ethical standards and buckling to external pressure when the work of their staff has come under attack. Employers have censored and disciplined journalists in response to external criticism and intimidation from unaccountable lobbyists, politicians, or big business who want to control the narrative on important issues of public interest. This has a chilling effect on other journalists that they too may be punished for stepping out of line, forcing them to compromise on their duty to the public to report the truth without fear or favour.
This year will be the sixth World Press Freedom Day that Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has spent in Belmarsh Prison near London. Beyond our immediate and urgent concerns for Assange’s health and wellbeing, his extradition and prosecution by the United States would set a disturbing global precedent for the suppression of press freedom and would constitute an assault on the public’s right to know. It would mean that any journalist, anywhere in the world, could be charged and extradited for handling any information that the US government classifies as "secret". The only real and conceivable path to freedom for Assange is for the US government to discontinue its prosecution. MEAA continues to call on the Albanese government to do all it can to secure his release from the US.
World Press Freedom Day 2024 cannot pass without also acknowledging the conflict in Gaza, where almost 100 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives since 7th October last year. Dozens more have been wounded or are missing. Twice as many journalists have been killed in Gaza under the Israeli offensive than were killed worldwide in 2022. MEAA supports the IFJ in calling on the Israeli Defence Force to do its utmost to safeguard journalists and media professionals and condemns the targeting or deliberate murder of journalists. We also pay our respects to the 15 journalists and media workers who have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
'Perspectives' is a Telum Media submitted article series exploring topics related to the industry. If you would like to contribute a piece for our Perspectives series, contact [email protected]
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