Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre and ABC Friends SA/NT
Freedom of the press and the role of journalists within democracies has never been under such sustained attack. Think of Julian Assange, Witness K, Bernard Collaery, David McBride, Richard Boyle, the AFP raids on the ABC and News Corp’s Annika Smethurst.
Quentin Dempster AM, former Chair of the Walkley Foundation and veteran journalist, broadcaster and author will canvass these threats in conversation with University of South Australia's Professor Rick Sarre.
Quentin has joined other prominent Australian journalists in proposing a Media Freedom Act to legislatively protect journalists and their informants and sources when they strive to alert us to matters the public has a right to know about. Such a measure would not put journalists and publishers above the law, but would enshrine in Australian law for the first time specific provisions ensuring the public’s right to know.
The United States had its Constitution’s First Amendment - freedom of the press - tested in 1971 when The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers which exposed the lies behind the War in Vietnam. With democracies like Hong Kong now fighting to retain human rights and media freedom, Quentin will explore why press freedom is under such pressure.
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre and ABC Friends SA/NT
Freedom of the press and the role of journalists within democracies has never been under such sustained attack. Think of Julian Assange, Witness K, Bernard Collaery, David McBride, Richard Boyle, the AFP raids on the ABC and News Corp’s Annika Smethurst.
Quentin Dempster AM, former Chair of the Walkley Foundation and veteran journalist, broadcaster and author will canvass these threats in conversation with University of South Australia's Professor Rick Sarre.
Quentin has joined other prominent Australian journalists in proposing a Media Freedom Act to legislatively protect journalists and their informants and sources when they strive to alert us to matters the public has a right to know about. Such a measure would not put journalists and publishers above the law, but would enshrine in Australian law for the first time specific provisions ensuring the public’s right to know.
The United States had its Constitution’s First Amendment - freedom of the press - tested in 1971 when The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Pentagon Papers which exposed the lies behind the War in Vietnam. With democracies like Hong Kong now fighting to retain human rights and media freedom, Quentin will explore why press freedom is under such pressure.
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au
