Double Take

This week, Monica jumps into a deep and murky pond of discontent – objectivity in journalism. Is it still important for the practice of journalism, and if so, how can it be reconciled with the push for our newsrooms to become more reflective of who we are as Australians?

Monica speaks to Kim Williams who will soon be taking the reins of power at the ABC as the new chair.

Early next year, Australia’s world-first news media bargaining turns 3, meaning that many of the deals Google and Meta have done with Australian news media businesses are about to expire. Worth well over $200m annually, these deals have prompted a host of other jurisdictions to follow suit. Yet critics argue the code is flawed, unfair and lacks transparency.

The CMT's Ayesha Jehangir speaks with Zahra Nader, the founder of Zan Times, a Canada-based news website that enables Afghan women journalists to continue reporting on Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. They discuss Zan Times, the challenges of practicing journalism in exile, and the safety concerns confronting women journalists in Afghanistan.

CMT Researcher Dr. Timothy Koskie talks media diversity and regional media with Genevieve Jacobs AM, whose Region Media Group hosts a variety of regional online news sources that service local communities across NSW.

Our conversation touches on how an absence of media diversity is

CMT Research Fellow Dr Michael Davis speaks to Professor Charlie Beckett, the founding director of Polis at the London School of Economics, a thinktank for research and debate around international journalism and society. 

In this episode, we’re talking about the risks and opportunities generative AI brings to news organisations around the world, including the moral panic it has stirred up.

Monica speaks with Tracey Kirkland, the Continuous News Editor for the ABC News Channel, and Gavin Fang, Deputy Director at ABC News. Together, they edited a collection of essays that cover the logistical, ethical and existential challenges faced by the news industry during the Pandemic and beyond. It’s called Pandemedia and it asks, how did the pandemic change journalism?  

Derek Wilding explores defamation and freedom of speech with someone who knows a lot about both! Michael Bradley is the founder and managing partner of Marque Lawyers in Sydney. He practises in media law, human rights and electoral law among other areas, and started off representing Private Media in Lachlan Murdoch’s since-abandoned action against Crikey.

For our first episode, Monica Attard speaks to Bernard Collaery, a Canberra lawyer and former ACT Attorney-General, on his prosecution by the Australian Government – recently dropped – for helping to expose a government spy operation against Timor-Leste during treaty negotiations in 2004.