Activists, media groups slam Australian court’s gag order

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public.

SYDNEY: An Australian courts gag order banning the reporting of allegations against several foreign political leaders in a major bribery scandal was slammed as unacceptable by activists and media groups.

Details of the suppression order, imposed by the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne on June 19, were revealed by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

It relates to an ongoing investigation into allegations that Asian officials and their families were bribed to secure contracts to print their currencies by a company, Securency, that is linked to Australias central bank.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said the gag was issued after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade stepped in, arguing that publication of the names could affect national security and international relations.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called it the largest blanket suppression order since 1995, when Australia sought to prevent the publication of details of a joint United States-Australian intelligence spying operation against the Chinese embassy in Canberra.

With this order, the worst in living memory, the Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public, said the former computer hacker, himself an Australian.

This is not simply a question of the Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due.

The concept of national security is not meant to serve as a blanket phrase to cover up serious corruption allegations involving government officials, in Australia or elsewhere.

France-based Reporters Without Borders spokesman Benjamin Ismail said the order spoke volumes about the current level of transparency in Australia.

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Activists, media groups slam Australian court’s gag order