The UK’s High Court has delivered a withering rebuke to the British Government, senior Ministers and the Serious Fraud Office. Neither government nor the executive – or foreign princes – are above the law in a parliamentary democracy, the High Court has…
We need to provide better laws to shield journalists and whistleblowers in Australia says ANU law student Lorraine Ingham after analysing how far Australia lags other English-speaking nations in protecting journalists and sources. Read article here (P…
A cops ‘n media TV show/circus in the USA is being sued for $110m because a humiliated victim suicided ‘live’ on air with a gun to the head. The New York Times’ Editorial Observer asks: where’s the line to stop the media becoming ‘brown shirts with TV ca…
The fragility of democracy, particularly when war is in the air, was the theme of CLA Director James Staples’ speech to officially launch, in the national capital, the Liberating of Lady Chatterley and Other True Stories: A History of the NSW Council for…
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties helped to break the back of archaic Australian censorship laws by taking the fight to Sydney’s streets, which were then rife with police corruption. The Liberating of Lady Chatterley and Other True Stories is the tale…
There’s a pressing need to review how WA’s Corruption and Crime Commission is using its sweeping powers, the West Australian State Convenor of CLA, Peter Dowding, told an ABC TV Stateline audience in late November. He joined media representatives in requ…
The erosion of freedom of speech reported in an audit by former NSW ombudsman Irene Moss issued yesterday (“Damning report cites erosion of free speech”, November 6, p5) is a situation which should worry all citizens.
It is pertinent that the audit was…
CLA’s submission on the Australian Law Reform Commission’s legal privilege discussion paper supports a number of the draft proposals, and stresses how important the status of the privilege is as a fundamental human right. Given that, there would be few c…
The Australian Government has introduced a Bill to allow the Federal Police to block or censor web content. The police, with limited oversight by courts, would decide what Australian’s can read, see or hear on the net. CLA believ consensus approach to ac…
Canberra Times cartoonist (and artist also in his own right) Ian Sharpe made some telling remarks in his speech at the opening of the CLA cartoon exhibition Laughing With Knives, at the ACT Legislative Assembly on 8 October.
Speech by Canberra Times…