“We can’t do our jobs if whistleblowers don’t trust that they can come to us.”
Journalists discussed the threats the Australian media is facing at a Walkley Foundation talk in Sydney.
Adjacent to their public campaign ‘What Price Would You Pay?’, The Walkley Foundation hosted a panel of award-winning journalists at the State Library of NSW in a bid to highlight the cost of delivering quality news.
Just over two weeks after the AFP media raids, Walkley Award-winning journalists Sarah Dingle and John Lyons, as well as award-winning journalist Nina Funnell, featured in a Walkley media talk panel on June 20, in which they shared their costly experiences from publishing honest news pieces.
From court subpoenas and death threats to vicarious trauma, journalists have put themselves on the line in order to unveil concealed truths or protect the identity of sources who have shared confidential content with them.
The panelists spoke upon several pressing issues within journalism, but most notably the protection of whistleblowers.
“The confidentiality that a lawyer has with a client or a doctor has with a patient should be just as inviolate for a journalist and a source,” said ABC journalist John Lyons.
He continued, “I think that we need a law in Australia where if you genuinely are exposing some wrongdoing in a hospital, a local council, a school, a parent-teacher association, whatever it is, you should have protection.”
Ultimately, it is the right of citizens to be made aware of issues that pose a threat to the general public such as illegal wrongdoing and corruption. Without whistleblowers, a light would not be shed upon these matters which concern the broader community.
The AFP raids on a News Corp journalist’s house and the ABC Sydney offices have showcased that the public’s right to know is being threatened and the act of truthtelling is being discouraged by our authorities.
Lyon commented, “In retrospect, I think the AFP raids on the ABC and on Annika Smethurst’s house will be seen as perhaps a turning point.”
“If this is not enough to make us wake up, the public and the media to change and to get protections for democracies and for media, nothing will,” he added.
Journalists Sarah Dingle and Nina Funnell also spoke upon their experiences with whistleblowers and the repercussions they face for speaking their truth.
Sarah Dingle commented: “Whistleblowers are an intrinsic part of journalism and I agree with John, the intended effect of the raids is to stop those people from coming forward,”
“It has a chilling effect and that’s a great shame,” she added.
Reflecting on the discouragement of truthtelling following the AFP raids, Lyon appealed to those becoming disillusioned with whistleblowing:
“We can’t do our jobs if whistleblowers don’t trust that they can come to us. If what you’re trying to expose is corrupt behaviour, you should be protected from prosecution, I think that is the bottom line of the law reform that we need,” he said.
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