As citizens each of us rely on journalists to alert us to important local, national and international events, expose raw deals, advance the debate on the issues we care about and help us hold our elected leaders accountable.
Already Australia has one of the highest concentrations of media ownership in the developed world, and last year the Government passed legislation to abolish cross-media ownership restrictions and allow even greater concentration of power, profit and influence. The controversial laws are still yet to take effect, and need our further scrutiny to ensure the Government is held accoutnable.
Polls show journalists and the public they serve overwhelmingly opposed further concentration of media ownership. Many Coalition MPs and Senators were openly critical of the plan, yet the Government was determined to treat the media like any other commodity to be bought and sold at will by the biggest players on the block.