Evidence (Protections for Journalists) Amendment Bill
24/09/2014
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: I take the floor very briefly to put on the record Dignity for Disability’s support of this bill. I would hope it goes without saying that we cannot expose a lot of corruption and indecency that happens in the world if we do not give people the ability to freely and openly shine a light on those issues. It is very important that we have the protection of those who seek to do so through their profession such as journalists to enable them to freely go about their work without fear of consequence.
To that end we also very strongly support the amendments put forward by the Hon. Mr Wade, particularly his amendment to broaden the definition of what constitutes a ‘journalist’ under the bill. In this modern age it makes common sense to me that we should also cover what we might sometimes refer to as ‘citizen journalists’ given that this is certainly a growing industry and more and more people are turning to informal journalism to get honest and open accounts of world affairs. With that very brief contribution, we very strongly support both the bill and the Hon. Mr Wade’s amendments.
