The following is a link to an article from Saturday, May 19 in Australia’s Courier Mail (a reputable paper for those who don’t know).
May or may not be of interest to international viewers – but the article lists 40 things that the government has suppressed – under restriction of Freedom of Information.
I’m posting the link because this really gets me – Australia is supposed to be a democracy and therefore our government is supposed to be open and accountable to the public. However, our government is increasingly secretive, and does everything in its power to prevent citizens, largely journalists from getting information; most of the time it is not the information that is the issue – they just enjoy running you around.
Governments are getting tricky (like they ever weren’t, I know) – they don’t oppress in one swift, overt and outrage-inciting movement – they tighten consistently but at a slow enough rate that most people don’t notice – and they won’t notice until suddenly our ‘democracy’ is replaced by autocracy and it’s too late to reverse the damage!
If the link doesn’t work, it’s most likely you’ve clicked on this a while after it’s been published and the story has been moved to archives. Just search “smart one day, secret the next” and you should get it. Should be accompanied by a photo of current Queensland Premier Anna Bligh.
US or Canadian citizens should note that Australia has no Bill of Rights, and that Freedom of Expression etc are mostly assumed rights in legal matters, and are ‘protected’ by some legislation but our media and society was not built on strong constitutional foundations such as in the US.
This may be in part a good thing, since there are less instances of trial by media, and less paparazzi crazies chasing people here. But I’m sure if things were fixed up, media would be alright at monitoring itself. On the most part we seem to be ethically sound.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23563031-952,00.html
Suck it up, Sunshine 