Julia Gillard has just succumbed to Greens’ pressure to restrict freedom of the Australian press. This is because the Greens fear the Murdoch press repeatedly calling for “regime change” of the present Green Labor federal government. Therefore, Ms Gillard’s communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, now says it is ‘incumbent’ on the government to establish an ‘inquiry’ into how the Australian Press Council (a voluntary body set up by the press in 1976) actually penalises members who breach ethical standards. This is a furphy. In 2003, the APC included in its Charter, principle 3, approved by member- representatives of the press, that the press itself ‘shall not be subject to government licence and government authorities should not interfere with the content of news nor restrict access to any news source.’ Indeed, the APC never has had the power to impose penalties: it relies on the integrity of the press to maintain ethical standards.
However, as his inquiry will call both for overhaul and regulation of the APC, Senator Conroy undoubtedly will introduce legislation to reduce the freedom of the Australian press.
Then, perhaps, that of the Australian TV news media; news on the radio; on the sale and possession of books critical of government policies; censorship in the form of rewriting history for university and school texts; severe editing of anti-government films. Just like Nazi Germany under Propaganda Minister Goebbels, Soviet Russia controlled by Stalin, Red China suffocated by Mao Zhe Dong.
And now, a magical moment! On September 14, in her efforts to convince Coalition MPs who did not believe the sky was falling in because of carbon dioxide, Julia Gillard said that if they intended voting against her proposed carbon tax, they should ask themselves, ‘are you on the right side of history?’ (The Australian, front page).
Here was “Clio” Gillard, one of the muses of ancient Greece, telling us that there was a ‘right side’– and, presumably, a ‘wrong side’ — of history. Silly me: I’d always thought history was history; that history didn’t take sides, left or right. But then, I’m not a Socialist.
Dr Paul Fidlon
