“Disappointing” was the best Guardian Australia could muster when Pauline Hanson’s One Nation banned it from a press conference, this time called to announce the party’s candidates for the forthcoming Victorian state election.

“Unorthodox” was the reaction of The Age, which was also banned, along with the ABC.

These are the latest in a series of bans imposed by One Nation on media it does not like. The first occurred on the eve of the byelection for the federal seat of Farrer in southern New South Wales on May 9. The ABC was chucked out, and the rest of the media stood by and did nothing.

The second occurred in Perth on June 11 when the ABC was ejected from a Swan chamber of commerce event at which Hanson spoke. Once again the other media acquiesced.

And now, along with The Guardian, The Age and has been added to the list of the proscribed in its home state, where an election is to be held in November.

In the face of a clear and present danger to press freedom and Australian democracy, two of the most important newspapers in the country cannot find it in themselves to call One Nation’s behaviour what it is: tyrannical.

Read more: One Nation’s banning of the ABC and abuse of journalists is shameful. It’s time other media took a stand

In democracies, public figures do not get to pick and choose who covers them and how. This is especially so with politicians at election time.

With polls showing between one in three and one in five voters would vote One Nation, allowing Hanson to get away with granting access only to........

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