Media
The FOI battle
Richard Aedy: Sometime in the next few days the Full Bench of the Federal Court will hand down its decision on an FOI case taken by The Australian. The paper’s Michael McKinnon wants some documents that the Treasurer, Peter Costello, has so far denied him. This is the journalist’s last chance to get them.
Rick Snell from the University of Tasmania Law School is arguably our leading academic on FOI. He says the case is important for several reasons.
Rick Snell: First and foremost it’s a rare initiative by the media organisations in Australia to tackle the government on the way that the Freedom of Information Act actually operates in practice, and also in the interpretation of the Act. It’s been very rare in the past for Australian media organisations to take the challenge up to the governments about their interpretation of the legislation.
Richard Aedy: It’s been described to me as a make-or-break for FOI and journalism in this country.
Rick Snell: I think that’s a fairly good summary of the position …
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