Cole Buhler – Edmonton, Alta. BCSC 327.
Professor Johan Lidberg of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, held a keynote speech on the future of global surveillance and security within journalism today at Grant MacEwan University.
Lidberg, author of In the Name of Security Secrecy, Surveillance and Journalism, discussed the Australian sport of “whistleblower hunting,” how climate change is more important than the spectre of terrorism, and how “we need a new generation of journalists.”
“It’s come to the point where I’ve fought a democratic flu,” Lidberg began, “how far are we prepared to go in the name of security?”
Lidberg’s main concern is that Australia lacks a bill of rights protecting journalists and their sources. This has led to “whistleblower hunting,” or what Lidberg refers to as an “Australian sport.”
Australia has amended over 80 national security laws since 2001. These expanded laws have enabled police raids in the search for whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers in Australia don’t have the same protection as they do in Canada and can face 2 to 3 years in prison. When asked about the state of Australian press freedom, Lidberg said that “it is not surprising…if we look at the worst side, we find Australia and the U.K.”
Canada, meanwhile, may have a charter of rights and freedoms but journalists can still face jail time for refusing to give up their sources. J-Source writes that the federal government can request the identity of a source if “the public interest in the administration of justice outweighs the public interest in preserving the confidentiality of the journalistic source.”
Dr. Brian Gorman, an Associate Professor at MacEwan University, said in an interview that journalists facing jail time should never disclose their sources because people who don’t feel safe won’t give information. “There needs to be some kind of protection,” Gorman said.
Security laws in Australia, on the surface, were expanded to combat the growing threat of extremism and terrorism, but for Lidberg, “the war on terror has no single identifiable enemy…a lot of the real and perceived threats come from within nation states, as well as from outside.”
With the real threat coming from within, Lidberg asks the question: “Is climate change not a greater threat to us than terrorism?”
World Wildlife Fund Australia writes that bushfires in Australia have burned over 2700 homes and killed 33 people as well as an estimated 1.25 billion animals from 2019 to 2020. Lidberg said that this catastrophic event could lead to the extinction of several species.
Lidberg also mentioned the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef. National Geographic writes that “half of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached to death since 2016.”
Lidberg said that Australians could become the world’s first climate refugees.
But no one is writing about it.
In fact, for Lidberg, there is a lack of coverage on climate change throughout Australia. Lidberg mentions that News Corp, the Murdoc owned media giant, is notorious for their disinterest in climate change.
“News Corp has polluted the public sphere,” Lidberg said.
Lidberg has seen the destruction of the bushfires up close and personal. His family escaped the fires during a camping trip.
“It is actually like being in a war zone,” Lidberg said.
Lidberg’s solution to fight this democratic flu is a new generation of young, transparent journalists who engage with their communities to encourage and foster trust during a time when political strongmen dominate the media landscape with authoritarian rhetoric.
“If you have support from the people that is the best way to influence the government,” Lidberg said.
The MacEwan Voice 