Letter

In response to The media must surely act now to rebuild public confidence

We trust truth over 'news as entertainment'

Ranald McDonald’s selectivity is confounding.

He implores Australian media to defend free speech and encourage honesty. Yet he agrees that under the scrutiny of a court of law, our media was found to be truthful to its readership (in the successful “truth’ defences in two recent attacks on press reliability: Ben Roberts Smith and Bruce Luhrmann), nevertheless he still encourages us to copy America and change our constitution to protect freedom of speech; questionable when the US government just passed a bill denying free speech if Israeli interests are involved.

Why doesn’t he address the journalistic injustices of:

* After five years, the Australian journalist Julian Assange remains locked up in Belmarsh Prison – simply for exercising his right to a free press and supporting our right to know. * 136 fellow journalists murdered by the Israel occupation * The war-mongering history of Sky News and News Ltd answering to lobbying by business interests. * three months into a genocide before the ABC admits that Israel is slaughtering, starving and imprisoning occupied Palestine and targeting the press.

Ranald McDonald tries to fix the Australian Press’ business model without addressing its heart: lack of ethics and vested-interest lobbying.

— Glenda Jones from Carlton 3053