May 3 was World Press Freedom Day, so declared by the United Nations in 1993.  Naturally, our Voice writers have long had an interest in this topic.

Cutting too close to home.  Voice editor Karl Low comments on a mysterious agenda item for the upcoming AUSU AGM that appears to spell the end of an independent Voice for AU students.  “The Voice Magazine has been publishing since almost the inception of AUSU. It was one of the very first things that students funded, and has grown from a small, eight page publication mailed out at great cost to the students two or three times a year, to the current 25-30 pages of AU student-focussed content that comes out almost every single week…”  Editorial – The Importance of Independence, April 10, 2015.   (Spoiler alert:  students and Voice writers fought back, and The Voice lives on.)

Don’t we have a national broadcaster for that?  Debbie Jabbour takes a far-ranging look at the pressures journalists face to slant their stories in ways favourable to government, organizational, and personal interests.  “Reporting that only presents one side of the issue is not responsible journalism and I think it assumes that readers do not possess sufficient intelligence to decide matters for themselves. Unfortunately media bias is a powerful tool that can be used to mislead the masses.”  From My Perspective – Freedom of Speech, February 4, 2004.