MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014 Australia and New Zealand actions on press freedoms alarming - PFF

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS Wed 15th October 2014

Global support for investigative journalism in Australia and New Zealand is a welcome response to law changes and a police raid, says the Pacific Freedom Forum

"Particularly welcome is the call from the Freedom of the Press Foundation in the United States for worldwide fundraising for legal defence," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi.

PFF is calling on Australia and New Zealand to urgently review law changes that restrict press freedom, and a police raid on the home of an investigative journalist.

"Media freedoms in the Pacific have long been supported by Australia and New Zealand," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi.

"To now see actions against those freedoms by authorities in those countries is alarming," she says.

PFF joins the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, an organisation representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries, along with other media freedom groups around the world in calling for the new Australian security laws to be revised.

"Journalism is not a crime," says Gabi, a journalist based in Papua New Guinea.

"Australia cannot credibly condemn the jailing of Al-Jazeera journalists on security charges in Egypt while pursuing similar powers in its own country."

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Australia and NZ actions on press freedoms alarming