Media bosses demand new laws to protect press freedom

Executives from the ABC, Nine and News Corp have gathered in Canberra today to make a united call for stronger safeguards to protect journalists and their sources.

The call comes after federal police searched the ABC headquarters in Sydney, and the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, earlier this month.

Hugh Marks, chief executive of Nine, said current defamation laws protect the powerful from being scrutinised by public interest journalism.

“There are endless examples of where good journalism has brought things to the attention of the public and actions had to be taken,” he said.

What is happening is this aggregation of laws that’s making that much more difficult to do.”

Among the requests made by the executives are calls to make it tougher to obtain search warrants for journalists, and the removal of criminal penalties for the publication of classified information.