The Journalist's Guide to Media Law - Chapter 9 - Keeping Secrets - FOI Legislation

Journalists may be able to bypass issues related to disobedience contempt and confidentiality if they have the time and resources to lordge a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for government information. First introduced by Federal government in 1982 and in 2006 applied to all states and territories.

In QLD the FOI act is, Freedom of Information Act 2009.

FOI is the principle that there is a strong public interest in the administrative decisions of governments. The theory is that government documents regarding an individual should be released for free to that person, while other documents are available for a fee.

The idea behind the FOI system is that government departments become transparent by allowing the release of documents. However there are several government organisations that are exempt from the act for fear of leaking documents that could effect or cause damage to Australia's security or defence interests. Some organisations that are exempt include ASIS, ASIO, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS), the Office of National Assessments and some Defence sectors.

Problems with FOR

The Australian Press Council identified five key shortcoming or failures of FOI legislation:

• Many requests are obstructed on the grounds they are unreasonably divert an agency's resources. 
• Time delays discouraged FOI requests.
• Costs of filing applications were prohibitive. 
• Too many exemptions greatly reduced the amount of information available. 
• Arbitrary decisions by FOI officers on classification of documents often hindered requests.

Week Two - Intro to Broadcast Journalism

Terms 

media houses - Covers stations/corps i.e. SCA. 

media ingest - Consumer or absorb something.

multi-platform - Many ways of sending reports.

digital workflow - How TV newsroom timetable or method is affected. 

media meshing - blogs, websites, apps, online etc. 

Radio News Bulletin Exercise for SCA Radio News (Regional - Townsville) 

Ergon Energy jobs may be on the line in Townsville amid concerns that Ergon could be privatised, leaving a new $60 million office building mostly empty. 

Townsville Chamber of Commerce president Dawson Wilkie said the State Government has "pushed for regionalisation." 

In - "We'd like to think they will continue down that path and not see services centralised back to Brisbane." 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez... will be embalmed following his funeral. Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said his body would be embalmed "like Lenin and Mao Zedong." World leaders will be attending his funeral later today. 

Facebook has launched a new version of their Android and IOS apps. Facebook's project lead engineer Chris Struhar said the changes to the news feed will make each post more "engaging." Though critiques have claimed the re-designing provides more space for adverts.

In Sport - The Cowboys have extended a helping hand to the Townsville Fire. The Cowboys have offered $1000 to assist with getting the girls to Melbourne early. Fire guard Mia Newley said the team’s so grateful for the support.

"Giving us the money to get down there early and giving us the greatest preparation we can have for a really big game is huge." 

Tutorial One - Know your Terms

Update this later...

The way a case works...

Drug dealer spent $1 million at casino: Police  Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/drug-dealer-spent-1-million-at-casino-police-20120605-1zto1.html#ixzz2Mj773Ylj 

1. The Crime / (Offence) - The drug syndicates were under investigation for various drug charges, guns were seized as well.
2. The Arrest - Happened on the morning of the 5 June at 6am. 
3. The Charged - Various drug charges.
4. Remand - The 19 faced court on the 6 June.
5. Committal -
6. Trial - After the trial is over the final details of the story can be given.

Legal Restrictions - Not naming the allegeded defendants, not giving out exact addressed, a broad timeline is given rather than specifying exact times of the offences.