Electronic Surveillance and Australian Journalism: Surveillance Normalization and Emergent Norms of Information Security

Abstract

The electronic surveillance capabilities of law enforcement in Australia have significantly strengthened in recent years creating considerable impacts on the practice of journalism. This paper reports on Australia’s hyper-legislative approach and the normalization of surveillance reflecting on what this means for journalists’ ability to securely communicate with sources and trust the digital infrastructure that they now rely on. Interviews with 19 journalists and 2 media lawyers demonstrated that while journalists insist that surveillance laws have not impacted their willingness to cover certain stories, there are challenges especially for source protections. The laws have negative impacts on the ability and inclination of sources to cooperate with journalists, with deleterious consequences for Australian democracy. Australian journalism must be secured from electronic surveillance through law reform and capacity building of information security skills of journalists. To this end, our findings also reveal how the normalization of surveillance is being met with an emerging norm of information security awareness in journalists.