By Mike Dobbie “Silicon Valley’s sins came home to roost in the United States on January 6 with mob violence on Capitol Hill. What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media. Online violence is real world violence… Facebook is the world’s largest distributor of news, and yet studies…

Fair rights and fair rates for freelancers — MEAA has long recognised that one of the key areas of inequality in the journalist profession is the comparative lack of rights of freelance journalists when compared with the full-time journalists working at media outlets. …

Urgent action needed — On November 21, 2021, MEAA released the findings of a new study that identified the dire state of Australian public interest journalism. MEAA demanded urgent government action to safeguard Australian democracy. MEAA said Australian journalism was in crisis after years of disruption, undermining and neglect, and swift action was urgently…

In February 2022, MEAA released the findings of its survey of journalists working in regional media about their concerns for their industry and their solutions to the problems. The subsequent report, Rescuing Regional Journalism, was presented to the Walkley Foundation’s regional journalism summit.[i] The survey of almost 200 regional journalists…

By Mark Phillips — MEAA has now been surveying working media and the public about attitudes towards press freedom for half a decade, and over that time concerns have become more entrenched. Each year since 2018, the survey has asked respondents to rate the overall health of press freedom in Australia. In the first…

“But now, the truth that the [vaccine] injections contain AIDS is going to terrify everybody. As it should.” — Retired Australian Army officer Riccardo Bosi, during the Convoy to Canberra protest, February 26, 2022[i] “You’ve seen what they have planned for us. You’ve seen the vaccination camps. Have you seen…

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) — “There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.” Tweet — June 20, 2021 “There is no [COVID] virus in Australia, so I won’t be dying or killing others. The media is the virus in Australia.”[i] Tweets — “So glad I’m a pure blood. I feel sorry for those who gave into the propaganda and took a vaccine…” “Are…

Foreword to the 2022 MEAA press freedom report — By Karen Percy In an era of disinformation and fake news, the role of public interest journalism has become increasingly vital — in sorting out fact from fiction through ethical and accurate reporting and holding power to account. But as media workers we can’t do it with one hand tied…

“There can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.” — International Federation of Journalists Reporting COVID protests The harassment and abuse directed at journalists as they sought to cover anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protests soared during the pandemic, particularly from mid-2021 and on into 2022. Reporting on…