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AUSTRALIA dramatically extended secret police powers yesterday in a move condemned by free speech campaigners.
Its parliament passed the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill, supposedly to help counter-terrorism officers combat extremist groups.
Anyone who discloses information relating to a “special intelligence operation” can now be jailed for 10 years in what journalists’ union the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance called “an outrageous attack on press freedom.”
Federal secretary Christopher Warren said the Bill “criminalises legitimate journalist reporting of matters in the public interest.”
And the Communist Party of Australia’s Anna Pha said increases in the Australian Security Intelligence Operation powers were “wide open to abuse,” noting that people could now be jailed merely for telling family members they had been questioned by agents.
While the Tony Abbott government had been forced to remove a clause granting immunity to officers accused of torture after a public outcry, Ms Pha pointed out that “this amendment cannot be taken seriously as anyone reporting torture can be jailed for 10 years.
“Freedom of the press, already severely limited by the high concentration of media ownership in Australia, is in the process of being outlawed by the Abbott government,” she warned.
The only party represented in Parliament to oppose the legislation was the Green Party, whose MP Adam Bandt condemned a law which meant “our security agencies could inadvertently kill an innocent bystander and journalists would not be able to report on it.”
