Government must listen to concerns on encryption legislation - MEAA

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has called on the government to
reconsider its proposed encryption legislation to address concerns about the
impact on journalists and their sources.

MEAA Chief Executive Paul Murphy said the bill should not be allowed to
proceed in its current form.

“This bill would grant access to the communications data of journalists without
any proper judicial oversight, and with no consideration of the need to protect
public interest reporting,” Mr Murphy said.

“Journalists increasingly rely on encrypted communications to protect the
identity of confidential sources. Offering this protection is vital. It gives
whistleblowers the confidence to come forward with public interest concerns.

“In the absence of that confidence many important stories will never come to
light.”

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has received
nearly 100 submissions to its inquiry on this bill. Virtually all of the
submissions raised serious concerns about its impact.

“Instead of listening to the concerns raised by technology experts, lawyers,
privacy advocates and many others, the government is instead seeking to ram
the legislation through Parliament next week," Mr Murphy said.

“Everyone accepts the need to give our law enforcement and intelligence
agencies adequate powers to keep us safe. But weakening encryption is a serious
and technically complex exercise, one that no other government has done.

“The risk in ramming through complex legislation with undue haste is that it will
actually make us less safe and trample on the very democratic freedoms we are
seeking to protect," Mr Murphy said.

“There needs to be much more careful consideration of the risks this legislation
poses.”