Media freedom in Australia is "fragile" and less protected than in New Zealand and several emerging democracies in Asia, an international journalism watchdog has concluded in its annual press freedom index.
Australia slid from 25 to 39 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) World Press Freedom Index for 2022, ranking below close neighbours New Zealand in 11th place and Timor-Leste at number 17.
"Ultra-concentration of media ownership, combined with growing official pressure, endanger public-interest journalism" in Australia, RSF said.
Taiwan, which has transitioned from a military dictatorship to a liberal democracy since the late 1980s, ranked just above Australia at 38.
Australia was also beaten out by Bhutan, a constitutional monarchy with an historically oppressive media environment in which political parties were banned until 2007.
"Many people who have been watching media and journalism in Australia have been worried," Tito Ambyo, a journalism lecturer at RMIT, told the ABC.
Ownership, 'problematic' laws and intimidation
RSF said Australia had one of the highest concentrations of media ownership in the world, with Nine Entertainment and News Corp dominating much of the news media landscape.
A spokesperson for Nine said its journalism was independent of Nine's corporate interests, and this was ensured through a charter of editorial independence.
"We stand by the work that our journalists undertake to ensure the audiences for each of our brands get independent, accurate and accountable journalism," the spokesperson said.
It also rejected concerns about media ownership in Australia, pointing to The Guardian and other news outlets on the internet.
The ABC has approached News Corp for comment but it did not respond by publication time.
RSF said raids against the ABC's Sydney headquarters and the Canberra home of political journalist Annika Smethurst in 2019, meanwhile, had created "an alarming legal precedent that threatens the survival of public-interest journalism".
It noted that freedom of the press was not guaranteed by the Australian constitution and that a number of "problematic" national-security-related laws in recent years had violated the principle that journalists' confidential sources were protected.
RSF also cited research by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), which found nearly 90 per cent of Australian journalists surveyed were "fearful that threats, harassment, and intimidation" were on the rise.
Almost one-quarter reported having been physically assaulted while working as a journalist.
MEAA media president and former ABC journalist Karen Percy said national security laws were "really curtailing the way journalists do their jobs".
She said the MEAA was calling for whoever formed government after the May 21 federal election to review the impact of national security laws on journalism, to implement a "diversity of voices" test when the government was considering mergers in the media sector, and to put stronger whistleblower protections in place.
"There has to be a commitment to what actual press freedom really means," she said.
"Our defamation laws, used against journalists, silence criticism. They silence any kind of real scrutiny of governments, businesses and the like."
The pandemic and associated extremist movements had seen an increase in violence, intimidation and harassment of journalists in Australia, she said.
ABC managing director David Anderson said this week that online abuse of journalists had worsened in connection to rising disinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism.
"We have all felt and observed a rise in online hate and abuse directed at our media professionals, and we have seen the devastating cumulative impact of this daily bullying," he said.
RMIT lecturer Mr Ambyo said governments in Australia needed "to start seeing journalists as an important part of democracy".
"We don't have journalists being killed or imprisoned in Australia, but we have seen a lot of abuses," he said, pointing to online harassment that was "often racist or gendered in nature".
Journalists in the Asia Pacific face difficult environment
Elsewhere in the region, many countries fared poorly on the RSF Index.
China, North Korea, Vietnam and Bangladesh ranked as some of the most repressive environments for journalists globally.
Myanmar, where the military seized power in February 2021 and began targeting journalists, activists and other critics, fell from 140 to 176 on the index.
Hong Kong, where many media outlets have their regional headquarters in Asia, plummeted from 80 to 148 after the shuttering of critical publications and the arrest of journalists amid a push from Beijing to crack down on free expression in the city.
Australia has voiced concern over rapidly deteriorating press freedom in Hong Kong, including the forced closure of the Apple Daily newspaper in mid-2021.
But Percy said Australia's ability to promote the importance of media freedom to neighbours was eroding.
"We can't be saying one thing and doing another," she said.
"We should be looking to New Zealand, we should be looking to Timor-Leste, and the other countries — Estonia, Finland — who were in that top 10 [of the RSF Index] and see what they are doing and try to emulate it."
Mr Ambyo, who is originally from Indonesia, agreed declining media freedom in Australia undermined the country's ability to project liberal democratic values to the region.
Percy added: "Despite all the problems, we have such great journalism being done in this country, in all of our news agencies."
"The vast majority of journalists and journalism is good in this country. We have a commitment to quality, we have a commitment to public-interest journalism, we have a commitment to ethics.
