The Shadow Minister for Arts will move to amend the Health Care (Health Access Zones) Amendment Bill to ensure it won’t threaten existing media rights.
The Private Member’s Bill aims to ban people from harassing clients and staff of abortion providers. The Bill includes banning all filming and photography within 150 metres of a health service that offers abortion.
This would include major public hospitals and clinics across the state.
The Shadow Minister will propose an amendment exempting news journalists, camera operators and photographers from the ban.
As the ‘Your Right To Know’ campaign continues, it’s important law makers are alert to threats to press freedom and guard against any unnecessary media restrictions.
Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for Arts Jayne Stinson:
This Bill tries to target protestors who might harass or intimidate women seeking abortions or health workers employed at abortion providers.
If passed, this Bill would see journalists and camera operators banned from recording images within 150 metres of an abortion service.
There are enough threats to press freedom, without the news media being stopped from doing their jobs within 150 metres of a health services, including hospitals.
The news media has a right to report on matters of public interest, like accidents and disasters, as well as protests staged outside health services.
As a former television journalist, I don’t want to see any unnecessary or unwarranted restrictions on the news media. This is an unjustified curb on press freedoms.
Restricting journalists from reporting on matters of public interest, including at our health facilities, simply isn’t OK and that’s why I’m putting forward these sensible amendments.