Australian governments should be less secretive about defence matters, asylum seekers and political donations and expenses, Sky News political editor David Speers has said in his address to the Press Freedom Australia dinner on Friday night.
“In August 2014 Australian troops were sent back into Iraq to help in the fight against Islamic State,” Speers said. “Apart from an initial flurry of coverage when they were first deployed, we now hear very little.”
Speaking in Sydney at the fundraiser for journalists in conflict zones, Speers said one of the greatest challenges for Australian political journalism is the lack of transparency and our complacency about it.
“Early last week Australian troops were caught up in a chemical weapons attack by Islamic State in Mosul,” he said.
“We found out initially through the American media! Fortunately no Australians were hurt. But why aren’t we told about this? There’s a hell of a fight going on in Mosul and we haven’t had one briefing about it.”
Speers said the defence department pumped out press releases and handed out glossy photographs but refused to give journalists access to the troops.
The lack of media access to Manus and Nauru made it extremely difficult to determine the truth, he said, pointing to the recent incident when PNG defence personnel fired around 100 shots into the Manus Island detention centre.
“Now if we did have more media access I’m not suggesting we’d all have permanent correspondents based in Manus Island.
“But when a situation like this comes along, where asylum seekers claim there’s an unfair insinuation that paedophilia is going on and when there are fears about what this could do to an already volatile situation between some locals and the asylum seekers, surely allowing journalists in to talk to all sides and accurately report what’s gone on would only be a good thing.”
The Sky News presenter, whose team won a silver Logie on Sunday for the best news coverage, was the keynote speaker at the Walkley Foundation event in collaboration with the International Federation of Journalists and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
There was not much concern about “fake news” in Australia, he said, but he did think it was crucial journalists disputed politicians who labelled uncomfortable news stories as fake news.
“There is absolutely no justification to link entirely legitimate stories from reputable journalists to the crap from fraudsters in Macedonia and other peddlers of material designed to deliberately mislead and undermine how people are informed,” Speers said.
“If a competitor’s legitimate story is labeled fake by a self-serving politician, call it out. Don’t let trashing journalism become a go-to response for those politicians who can’t mount a better defence.”
Speers said transparency and strong, balanced journalism was more important than ever because the public was losing trust in the media, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer which showed trust in the media in Australia fell an alarming 10 points during 2016, from 42% to just 32%.
“That’s near the bottom of the pack internationally,” he said. “Well below the level of trust in the media in the US, India, China and Indonesia. We scrape in just above Russia and Turkey.
“Without trust we are vulnerable. Who are voters going to believe when a politician labels as fake a story they simply don’t like?”
Social media storms and Twitter abuse made it difficult to play it straight but journalists should go back to basics and hold both sides to account, he said.
“To ask tough questions of those in every political party, the big ones and the little ones, to uncover uncomfortable truths and, yes, tell audiences what they might not like to hear or necessarily agree with,” he said.
“Journalists need to be journalists, not players. Not Twitter warriors.
“If you want to be trusted as a political journalist, play it straight. If your media organisation values trust, they will thank you for it. Don’t be swayed by the outrage industry on social media.
“Admittedly this isn’t as easy as it sounds,” he said.
Held at the Ivy ballroom this year, the annual dinner raises money for the Media Safety and Solidarity Fund, which provides support for journalists in conflict zones in the Asia-Pacific, as well as emergency assistance in times of disaster.
According to the fund, 28 journalists were killed last year in the Asia-Pacific alone, and 93 worldwide.
