One of Australia’s leading media freedom advocates will discuss ways to radically transform the relationship between media and the government at an event this week hosted by The University of Western Australia’s Public Policy Institute.

Professor Peter Greste is presenting Not So Free: Why Australian media is dangerously exposed, why it matters, and how to fix it on Friday 3 November from 4pm to 5pm at the City of Perth Library auditorium. 

Since his release and deportation in February 2015 after spending 400 days in an Egyptian prison, Professor Greste has made it his mission to advocate for media freedom everywhere.

The Macquarie University academic and journalist said Australia was far more precarious than most people appreciated when it came to media freedom.

“Since 9/11, the Federal Government has passed more 90 national security laws – more than any other country in the world,” Professor Greste said.

“Many of these laws criminalise otherwise legitimate journalistic investigations, expose journalists’ data and intimidate whistleblowers.”

Professor Greste said the situation was so serious that from 2019 to 2022, Australia slipped almost 20 places in the World Press Freedom Index.

“At the same time, public confidence in journalism – never very high in the first place – is now at an all-time low as standards have continued to slide in the face of collapsing news revenues,” he said.

“All this, at a time when we need reliable, high-quality news and information more than ever before.”

UWA PPI Director Associate Professor Paul Maginn said investigative journalism had a fundamental role to play to ensure all levels of government and corporations could be held to account.

“One of the litmus tests of a robust democracy is press freedom and Peter Greste’s incarceration as a foreign correspondent is emblematic of the need to ensure that liberal democracies ensure press freedom,” Professor Maginn said.

For more information and to book tickets to the event click here.