News Corp Australia’s regional news brands this week joined as one with a powerful new front page highlighting increasing excessive secrecy by governments to stop journalists from telling the public what they are doing.
The front page telling governments ‘Not to Keep Us in the Dark’ was published throughout regional Queensland, NSW, the Northern Territory and Victoria. In Hobart, The Mercury also produced a front page exposing local government secrecy.
The local news brands joining in the campaign come from Bundaberg, Grafton, the Sunshine Coast, Northern Star, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Warwick, Darwin, Gladstone, the Gold Coast, Mackay, Ipswich, Gympie, Toowoomba, Geelong, Hobart, Toowoomba, Geelong, Hobart, Lismore and Coffs Harbour.
The move forms part of Australia’s Right to Know campaign by major media organisations targeting growing government overreach to stop journalists informing the public of matters of public interest.
News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said: “These front pages send a powerful message that Australia’s media is standing up for the rights of all regional Australians to know what their governments are doing.
“The Right to Know campaign is important for our industry as a whole but it’s much more than that.
“Governments of all levels – local, state and federal – too often exploit what they perceive as a lack of scrutiny outside of mainland capital cities to take questionable decisions and actions.
“It’s our commitment in serving the communities where all of us live and work that we keep these governments honest and at every turn, fight their increasing secrecy.
“Regional Australians should know about decisions that affect them.”
