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Parliamentary intelligence committee's inquiry on press freedom has heard from a bunch of top intelligence experts this arvo, they've warned the debate around a free press and national security has become "oversimplified".
They've also suggested there needs to be a better relationship between intelligence officials and journos. Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security director Michael Shoebridge has said regular briefings would be a good idea.
Professor Rory Medcalf has said a free press with investigative powers and courage is a "magic weapon". Medcalf is a spook guru from the National Security College, but appeared in a personal capacity with a few colleagues.
One of them, Katherine Mansted, said once a free press is gone it's hard to get it back and stories are already falling by the way side because journos were feeling too intimidated to tell them. "The chilling effect is possibly one of the biggest concerns here."
Chair Andrew Hastie has also made a point of talking about how open the relationship was between the US defence forces and the US media in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to how measured it was here.
Jumping around a bit here (and realise this all a bit inside baseball) but Shoebridge said he hears spooks saying a journo can't report X because they don't know the history and context. "And I think, 'Why is that?'"
Shoebridge also critical of the govt being "country agnostic" as in not naming culprits of espionage, saying it doesn't pass the pub test. But media doesn't have to worry about the diplomatic implications. (Also, you can't defame a country.) We're talking about China, folks.
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