The Turnbull Government’s National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2017, introduced on the last sitting day of Parliament in 2017, would criminalise all steps of news reporting and poses a grave threat to press freedom in this country.

One leading academic says the Bill would make Australia the worst nation in the free world for criminalising journalism. Peter Greste says the laws are a gross over-reach and make it “incredibly difficult” for journalists to do their duty of holding governments to account.

The Bill would make it a crime for anyone to “receive” and “handle” certain national security information. A journalist in possession of a document classified “top secret” could face 20 years in jail — even if they never broadcast or publish a story.

The result is that fair scrutiny and public interest reporting is increasingly difficult and there is a real risk that journalists could go to jail for doing their jobs. It also undermines the ability of journalists to work with their sources, including whistleblowers, on important news stories.

This applies to not only journalists but other editorial staff and support staff that knows of the information, from sub-editors and designers to even the receptionist who is handed a classified document.

Public interest defences for journalists are so broad and subjective at a time when accusations of “fake news” are raised so readily, that they offer no protection at all.

This Bill is just the latest in a raft of strict national security and anti-terror measures and have undermined the ability of the news media to report on matters in the public interest and to play its role in a health democracy by keeping Australians informed about their environment and communities. There have been 67 pieces of “national security” legislation passed since September 2001.

MEAA, along with all major media publishers and broadcasters, says the Bill should not proceed unless there is a robust general public interest/news reporting defence for both the secrecy and espionage elements.

In the name of press freedom and government accountability, we call on the Turnbull government to withdraw the Bill until it is rewritten to protect journalists from criminal prosecution.