But now to a fine bit of journalism from South Australia, which received a strange reward:

TOM CONNELL: This week a regional mayor in South Australia has been found guilty of maladministration and misconduct over meeting his online girlfriend on a taxpayer funded trip overseas. - Newsday, Sky News, 6 November, 2018

Earlier this month, as Adelaide’s Advertiser reported, Port Pirie mayor John Rohde was nailed by the South Australian Ombudsman for misusing ratepayer funds, by taking two trips to the Philippines in 2016 to meet his online lover.

And as The Advertiser reminded its readers, it was the same paper that had broken the story in January with this exclusive by Andrew Hough, who explained to Sky News:

ANDREW HOUGH: … he’d met a lady, a divorcee called Bita on the Cupid international website, it’s an online dating website, and he went and visited her … Now he claimed at no stage was there a, was there a romantic link and they were just friends. The Ombudsman has rejected that. - Newsday, Sky News, 6 November, 2018

Hough’s story is the sort that wins awards and it exemplifies the media’s role in keeping the bastards honest.

So, no doubt South Australia’s Ombudsman and Independent Commission Against Corruption have showered the reporter with praise and plaudits?

Well, no. In fact, the opposite:

ANDREW HOUGH: … for the last eight months I’ve had many a sleepless night as has my wife, concerned that I would face the prospect of a jail cell for doing my job. - Mornings with David Bevan, ABC Radio Adelaide, 6 November, 2018

Two months after his story was published, Hough got a letter from the Ombudsman asking him to disclose his sources.

And he faced the threat of fines or jail until he complied. But that was just the start of it:

ANDREW HOUGH: Under the law you are not allowed to talk about the fact that you are the subject of an ICAC style or ICAC investigation … I could only tell my highly-distressed wife, an incredibly supportive wife who has been an absolute rock and a legend through all of this, and I then had to get special legal, my lawyers had to get special legal permission from the Ombudsman and his officers for me to tell my editor, Matt Deighton, and his boss, our editorial director, Melvin Mansell. - Mornings with David Bevan, ABC Radio Adelaide, 6 November, 2018

News Corp’s bosses were right behind him but Hough still risked being put behind bars.

Luckily for him, the Ombudsman did not push his leak inquiry to a conclusion and Hough did not go to jail.

But as he told Sky:

ANDREW HOUGH: We think that it’s wrong that any journalist in this state or in this country should face any form of leak inquiry and face the ramifications of jail or a fine, for just doing our jobs. - Newsday, Sky News, 6 November, 2018

Damn right. Especially when that job is done so well.

So, how could it happen when South Australia has a Whistleblower Protection Act?

Well, the 1993 act does not cover disclosure to journalists. And the ICAC Act outguns it anyway.

Or, as criminal law Professor Rick Sarre told Media Watch:

The protections for journalists in SA have as many holes as the best Swiss cheese. - Professor Rick Sarre, Email, 24 November, 2018

But we have some good news.

South Australia has now amended its whistleblower laws to cover disclosure to journalists and has passed a new shield law.

Except there is a catch. Whistleblowers still have to disclose internally first and get an unsatisfactory response

And the new shield law does not protect journalists against the ICAC which can still compel them to reveal their sources, and send them to jail if they don’t comply.

So much for press freedom.

Although Rick Sarre assures us it would only happen in the most extreme cases.

The two reports from the South Australian Ombudsman can be found here and here.