David Shoebridge slams ASIO’s warning about media spies, says it will have ‘chilling effect’ on whistleblowers

ASIO is being accused of attacking Australia’s press freedom after the intelligence agency urged government officials to limit and tightly control any interactions with journalists and media organisations.

This week The Nightly revealed a newly produced ASIO Intelligence Assessment that warns international spies were posing as reporters to steal classified information and conduct foreign interference.

The ASIO document marked “sensitive” also advises Commonwealth agencies and officials that “unapproved or unauthorised contact with journalists and the media carries risks for the security of government information.”

Greens Senator and frequent ASIO critic David Shoebridge condemned the warnings as a “politicised intervention” that increases the “chilling effect” on whistleblowers.

“ASIO telling Australians that contact with journalists carries security risks should worry everyone who values a free press,” Senator Shoebridge, the Greens Justice spokesperson, told The Nightly.

“A healthy democracy depends on people being able to talk to journalists without a security agency hovering over their shoulder.”

“The real threat to press freedom in this country is not people talking to reporters, it is the stack of secrecy laws that leave whistleblowers and journalists facing prosecution for telling the public the truth.

“ASIO knows that warning people off contact with the media deepens that chilling effect, and it pushes accountability further into the dark.”

In its four-page intelligence assessment, ASIO details how foreign spies also target and use journalists to “influence narratives on issues that matter to them – this constitutes foreign interference”.

Senator Shoebridge has also hit out at the assessment, suggesting that Rupert Murdoch’s media empire NewsCorp Australia is also engaged in foreign interference in this country.

“If we are serious about foreign actors shaping Australia’s political narratives, the obvious place to start is the US citizen who controls the bulk of our newspapers and social media platforms, not the working journalists doing their jobs.”

“Somehow Rupert Murdoch’s and Elon Musk’s daily influence over our politics never makes it into a foreign interference briefing, that tells you this framing is only about the journalism the establishment finds inconvenient, not about protecting the country.”

At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Shadow Foreign Minister Ted O’Brien was asked about what policies the Coalition wants to put in place to counter foreign interference, following ASIO’s recent warnings about foreign spies targeting journalists.

“You can take it from my speech that we are prioritising importance or foreign interference,” Mr O’Brien said in response.

“I think the Government wants to hide from having hard conversations about foreign interference. They need to speak plainly about that, and they need to speak directly also with different diaspora communities, which are being targeted”.

The Nightly has also approached Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke for comment about the latest ASIO Intelligence Assessment but has not received a response.

According to the ASIO document “foreign intelligence services can exploit state media to embed officers under journalistic cover in Australia and internationally,” and cites an example of a Chinese reporter charged in the Czech Republic.

“State-affiliated media organisations are uniquely effective for this purpose, as they can be directly compelled by their home governments to facilitate intelligence objectives,” the assessment warned.

The Nightly has confirmed that journalists working for Chinese Communist Party controlled news organisations are no longer accredited to inside Canberra’s Parliamentary Press Gallery.

Back in 2020 a representative of China’s Xinhua News Agency was reported for filming other journalists in Parliament House, which caused alarm for some occupants of the building.

At the time Liberal Senator James Paterson called for rule changes that would prevent state media from one-party, totalitarian countries having “unfettered access” to the Parliament for themselves and their guests.

The Department of Parliamentary Services is believed to have recently increased security checks on all foreigners who hold passes for the building, including journalists working for foreign news organisations.