On press freedom, in a world that is becoming more and more illiberal, including now the most powerful democracy of all, the message is becoming stark for our own country. When the president of the United States sits in the White House with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, as he did a week ago, and seeks to dismiss the brutal murder and dismemberment of Saudi journalist and Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi government as “things happen” – THINGS HAPPEN – and castigates the journalist who dares to ask the Crown Prince about it, it illuminates just how far the ground has shifted for journalism in the US.

US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office.Credit: AP

All those massive lawsuits against mainstream media outlets that Donald Trump regards as the enemy, that are designed to intimidate against continuing to chronicle his alarming demolition job on the institutions that underpin democracy in America, are testament to the clear and present danger for a strong, free, effective and independent media everywhere.

And don’t kid yourself it can’t happen here. America was softened up for Donald Trump long before he arrived. Even the constitutional protection of a Bill of Rights and the First Amendment protection for press freedom has been diminished in Trump’s America, and we have no such constitutional protection here anyway.

Six years ago, I highlighted a rare unity of purpose within our industry called the Right to Know coalition to pressure the Scott Morrison government to strengthen press freedom in Australia, after separate federal police raids on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters and journalist Annika Smethurst’s home in Canberra. These raids were widely seen as a clumsy attempt at intimidation after embarrassing leaks of secret government documents.

Nine days later, December 7, 2019, Anthony Albanese, as opposition leader, attacked the Morrison government for its failure to support press freedom. He referred to the raids as reflecting “something sinister”.

There have been two parliamentary inquiries into press freedom since then, with some 30 recommendations for........

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