Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that the Foreign Press Association has grave concerns about the actions of the Israeli Government that have made access to the Gaza Strip inaccessible to foreign media; and

(b)

calls on the Australian Government to make representations to the Israeli Government to allow proper access for the media into Gaza.

Question negatived.

Because the motion was opposed by the opposition and the government, rather than go to a vote I seek leave to make a brief statement.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate. This is an extremely important matter of international press freedom. The borders of Gaza have been closed, in effect, for more than two weeks because the Israeli government has decided, according to defence ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror, that Israel is displeased with news coverage of Gaza and has charged that the news coverage has overplayed Palestinian suffering without adequate explanation of Israel’s reasons for closing the border.

However, in Israel itself the Tel Aviv based Foreign Press Association has taken action in Israel’s Supreme Court, which has ordered the government to respond within 15 days. Heads of the leading world news organisations—and that includes CNN, the New York Times, Associated Press and Reuters—have written to Prime Minister Olmert demanding that the border be reopened, but Mr Olmert told reporters in Washington he had not read the letter.

Australian journalists are frustrated by this ban on foreign journalists going into Gaza. It is not good enough for the Israeli government to indicate that it does not like the level of coverage. This is an important matter of press freedom. I would have thought that the government and the opposition would stand for press freedom, not least for Australian journalists who want to be able to cover events in Gaza. There is no doubt that it is a horrendous situation in the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian people and a dangerous situation for the Israeli people. But it will be made all the better, not worse, by coverage, and I would have thought that the government and the opposition would have supported the motion.