PUBLIC RIGHT TO KNOW CONFERENCE 2003 SESSIONAL PLAN AT OCTOBER 9th, 2003 OPENING NIGHT Friday 17 October, 2003Venue : The Guthrie Lecture Theatre, University of Technology, Sydney Level 3, Building 6 "Peter Johnson Building" (next to ABC Sydney) 702-730 Harris St, Ultimo 6:30 pm: Welcome drinks & Conference Registrations
7:30 pm: Opening Night Presentations
THE SECRET LIFE OF THEM:
Government Secrets and the Breakdown of The Public Right to Know Chair: Associate Professor Chris Nash, Director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism Speakers:
Julian Burnside, QC Ministerial responsibility what happened to the Westminster tradition of responsible government? Would a Bill of Rights make a difference?
Andrew Hewett, Executive Director of Oxfam Community Aid Abroad Tying funding to "good behaviour": threats against NGOs and community organisations that speak critically of government policy
Margo Kingston, Journalist, Sydney Morning Herald
Getting information from government: negotiating the Spin maze
Quentin Dempster, Journalist, ABC Bullying the Public broadcaster: threatening the ABCs role of providing information and promoting debate on matters of public importance
The panel pesentations will be followed by questions and comments from the audience.
CONFERENCE PAPERS Saturday 18 October Venue : Lecture Theatre 3-510, University of Technology, Sydney Building 3 (Bon Marche Building) Level 5, Cnr Harris St & Broadway(enter from 755 Harris St Ultimo)
9:00 10:30am SCANDAL & CELEBRITY
Jennifer Wilkinson Celebrity Gossip, Sexuality and the Perversion of Private life Virginia Small Representing power through the prism of values: A critical discourse analysis of Asian and Western print news reporting of two sex scandals involving respective heads of state Marcus O'Donnell Intimate Citizenship : press reports of the gay marriage debate
Chair: Diana Simmonds
15 min break
10:45 12:00 SPIN & CENSORSHIP
Paul Jones (UNSW) Talkback Radio : Class & Media influence in Australia Brian Martin (UWgong) Backfire dynamics in Free Speech Struggles Chris Nash (UTS) Media representation as a site of struggle
Chair: Peter Manning
1 h lunch
1:00 2.30pm AT THE COALFACE
Marion Le Dare to Question? Beyond the Demonising: the transfer of prisoners to Goulburn High Risk Management Unit from Lithgow in June 2003 Jo Gow and Dr Mary Quilty Advocacy in the Dark Seeking Justice for Asylum Seekers in Australia
Wendy Bacon Victims of legal injustice a case for the too hard basket?
Chair: Eva Cox
15 min break
2:45 4:00pm NARRATIVE STRUGGLES
Dr David Butt, Dr Annabelle Lukin & Prof Christian Matthiessen Reporting war: grammar as 'covert operation' Prof Jock Collins Truth Overboard: Media and Public Discourses about ethnic crime and boat people in Australia
Chair: Professor Joyce Kirk
4:00 5:00pm MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Chris Warren, Australian Journalists Association Cross Media Ownership panel discussion panellists to be confirmed) Chair: Liz Fell Sunday 19 September Venue : Lecture Theatre 3-510, University of Technology, Sydney Building 3 (Bon Marche Building) Level 5, Cnr Harris St & Broadway enter from 755 Harris St Ultimo)
10:00 11.30am INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & FOI
James Arvanitakis "I have a patent lawyer on retainer!" Intellect v. Intellectual Property a battle over the cultural commons?
Rosslyn Reed The Public Right to Know about Science
Anne Fordham The Public's right to know sensitive government information
Chair: Katrina Lee
15 min break
11:45 1:00pm FREE SPEECH
David Robie The sword of Damocles in the Pacific: Two media regulatory case studies Mark Pearson Press Freedom and the High Court in the Callinan era: rethinking the rhetoric.
Patrick Keyzer When Freedom of the Press Clashes with Aboriginal Land Rights: The Difficult Intersection That Occurred in Toohey v Peach
Chair: Penny O'Donnell
1 hour lunch
2:00pm 3:40pm RADICAL PRESS & STUDENT PRESS
Alan Knight Ratbags, revolutionaries and free speech: The Queensland radical press in 1968 Independent & student press panel Charles Gregory & Anna Hustler the Vertigo anti-war 'adbust' Melita Rogowsky the article 'The Art of Shoplifting' in the July 1995 edition of Rabelais
Stacy Scheff Sydney Indymedia Editor 2SER speaker to be confirmed
Chair: Wendy Bacon
20 min break
4:00 5:00pm PLANNING SESSION
PUBLIC FORUM PUBLIC CONTRIBUTIONS REQUESTED
Issues raised in the conference have included:
Government secrecy Press freedom Victims of legal injustice refugees, journalists, and "ordinary Australians" Tying government funding to community groups' silence Cutting down the power of the public broadcaster Corporate control over media organisations
How do we progress the resolution of these issues around the Public Right to Know? Chair : Chris Nash
Conference closes at 5pm
By Wendy Bacon posted 13 October 03
Related:
Guantanamo Bay treatment: Limbo
Former federal judges, diplomats, military officials and human rights advocates in the United States have urged the Supreme Court to review the cases of detainees [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East], being held without charge at Guantanamo Bay in the name of terrorism.
Australia: Justice for Hicks & Habib
The public forum Justice for Hicks & Habib was quite a success. Approximately 130 people attended the event, a big number for a Saturday eve!
Judge renews child detainee release call
A Family Court judge, for a second time, has appealed to Immigration Minister, war criminal, Philip Ruddock to address the issue of children in detention.
Terry Hicks Odyssey for Justice for his Imprisoned Son
Terry Hicks, David Hicks father, one of two Australian [scapegoats] held imprisoned [and tortured] at Guantanamo Bay, arrives tomorrow Saturday 20 September in Sydney. He will hold a Press Conference at 2pm at Breakout, 65 Bellevue St. Glebe.
Civil Liabilities: Howard's diversity? I had a dream?
The war criminal, Prime Minister, John Howard, who only yesterday was claiming he was showing diversity has stepped up pressure on the states to support plans to increase the war criminal, Federal Attorney-General's powers to ban terrorist organisations, [scapegoats and patsies for the Coalition of the Killing's illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.]
Keep the bastards honest: Publicity keeps an eye on ethics?
The Australian Federal Police commissioner says investigations into terrorist links [scapegoat and patsy links] to Australia are being made more difficult by public debate about the progress of inquiries.
Howard, Ellison, Williams, Australian terrorists, Muslim bashing! Brothers sacrificed! [War criminal], Attorney-General Daryl Williams said the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, [Australian state-terrorists], had been in contact with Lebanese authorities over the Khazal brothers. "The Australian authorities are well aware of the fact that a warrant was issued for the arrest of Mr Khazal and his brother in June," [war criminal], Williams said yesterday.
Qantas handler handcuffed to al-Qa'ida
War criminal, Attorney-General Daryl Williams who? Daryl Williams who? Oh you mean that Daryl Williams, would you believe him? You say he what? Confirmed last night the Government was aware of claims that Sydney man Bilal Khazal and Melbourne cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran were linked to an al-Qa'ida detainee known as Abu Dahdah.
Islamic movement denies links to Al Qaeda
The Islamic Youth Movement has denied having any links to Al Qaeda and says it is considering legal action against the Four Corners [Walls] program. In a statement released early this morning, the group rejects allegations it is helping coordinate any kind of terrorist network inside Australia and says it is being unfairly targeted.
Former Qantas worker denies Al Qaeda link
Four Corners [Walls] has [allegedly] cited a CIA document alleging Bilal Khazal was not only an Al Qaeda operative but was planning attacks on US interests in Venezuela and the Philippines, but Mr Khazal has denied the claims.
Woman linked to Four Corners worked at Sydney Airport: JI
Parody: New airport security concerns have been raised by reports that a woman believed by JI to be associated with Four Corners worked as a baggage handler at Sydney's international terminal.
Evidence emerges of proposed Four Corners base in Bali
Parody: More evidence has emerged that the ABC terrorist network believed to have been behind the propaganda in Australia has tried to set up a long-term base in Bali.
Australian Terror cell here long before Bali
The Australian terrorist Captain Cook infiltrated Australia years before the Bali bombings in which 202 people perished. Aboriginal people attempted to remember Captain Cook not as a founding father but as a harbinger of dispossession and death, a sign of white amnesia. Another anniversary year-used to mark two hundred years since Cook had journeyed along the east coast of Australia and, for some people, discovered a continent.
NSW police confirm don't use the phone to talk about terrorism!
The New South Wales Police Service has confirmed it is using phone taps and other forms of electronic surveillance to monitor suspected terrorist activity [ ? To monitor potential scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killing's illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.]
Australia: Terrorising you in secret
Suspected terrorists [scapegoats and patsies for the Coalition of the Killing's resource wars in the Middle East] will be tried in secret under new laws to be introduced by the Federal Government.
NSW Police Force may get 'special powers'
Civil libertarians are questioning the need for further anti-terrorism laws, which will be announced in the New South Wales Parliament on Tuesday.
Evidence that Howard was complicit in CIA, false flag, call to arms, Bali bombings War criminal John Howard was complicit in the call to arms - false flag operation - Bali bombings - instigated by the CIA - and the Coalition of the Killing - to bolster support - and quell dissent for their illegal and degrading resource wars in the Middle East.
War criminal Howard high-jacks HRCA to 'legitimise killing'
The Human Rights Council of Australia (HRCA) says it fears Prime Minister John Howard's comments in support of the execution of [CIA operative] Osama bin Laden show his eagerness to overturn three decades of national opposition to the death penalty.
State terror units caused the terror!
The level of suspicion and surveillance created by the [US false flag operation and call to arms] Bali bombings, created by [ the Coalition of the Killing and Australian's complicity to go to war on Iraq] means that all Australian's suffer the loss of their human rights, civil rights and their democratic rights, as well as those Australian's who lost their life in Bali.
Al-Qa'ida or poor people without hope?
Anyone contemplating war without a UN sanction is nothing more than a common criminal and not acting in accordance with the law. Isn't Richardson the head of ASIO? A law enforcement agency? Al-Qa'ida is a Coalition of the Killing demon made up by the CIA. These people are just scapegoats, patsies, and peasants."
Red paper classes Australia as terrorist suspects
Australia's old foreign policy red paper says Australians have become targets because their own government is being run by war criminals that are complicit in state terror, torture, murder, occupation and genocide.
Australia backs CIA Reichstag, Downer's propaganda
The Foreign Affairs Minister says the latest message from Osama bin Laden is worrying. [Just plain rubbish!]
UK Reid, Blair and the reichstag London threat!
The nature of the [alleged] terrorist threat to London is on the scale of the [USA false flag] September 11 attacks in the United States, the chairman of Britain's governing Labour Party said.
Bin Laden calls? CIA blind man's bluff!
A [US propaganda, fear-mongering] taped message purportedly from Osama bin Laden has warned Arab nations against supporting a war against Iraq but has branded Saddam Hussein an infidel.
Middle Eastern: Specific Legislation
"If there is a target person the police would have powers in relation to that type of person," Mr Costa said. Asked what he meant by "type of person", Mr Costa said: "The example that's been given is if there's a description of somebody, an identikit photograph released by Interpol or other agencies ... these powers may well be exercised on that type of person."
Howard defends terror alert
Prime Minister John Howard says the Federal Government would not have issued a terror alert if it had not come from a credible source. (America?) Speaking for the first time since the Government revealed the warning, Mr Howard says he wants people to be more careful, but not to stop living. [As long as they don't go dancing in Bali? And sure we'll all be depressed for as long as John Howard and Bob Carr say so.]
Carr backs Fed Govt's terror alert
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has defended the Federal Government's decision to issue a warning to Australians about a possible terrorist attack in Australia.
NSW Police Force may get 'special powers'
Civil libertarians are questioning the need for further anti-terrorism laws, which will be announced in the New South Wales Parliament on Tuesday.
When Johnny comes marching home again: 'hoorah hoorah'
Posted on the Resistance web page Bronwyn Powell, an organiser of the youth-led mobilisation told Green Left weekly that "in the face of attacks on civil liberties, it is unfortunate that some union officials have felt they need to submit. It could set a negative precedent for upholding the hard-won right to demonstrate in the street."
Give peace a chance
PIERS AKERMAN DT 28 Nov 02: JUSTICE John Dowd should be removed from the bench. His crime? Stupidity. In a breath-taking display of hand-wringing sanctimonious morality, Dowd has condemned the State and Federal Governments' anti-terrorism measures, claiming they erode rights and give encouragement to oppressive regimes.
The scavengers of terror
The NSW Government is to introduce increased police powers bill. Legislation giving New South Wales police special powers to deal with an emergency terrorist situation [emergency scapegoat situation] will be introduced into the New South Wales Parliament today.
