Corruption and the media were on CQU senior lecturer Helen Ester’s agenda when she presented at a New South Wales Parliamentary conference last month.

The Bundaberg-based lecturer presented a paper titled Corruption and the Media – Political Journalists, ‘leaks’ and Freedom of Information at the National Conference of Parliamentary Oversight Committees of Anti-Corruption/Crime Bodies at Parliament House, Sydney.

The paper looked at leaks and whistleblowing from the perspective of political journalists, in particular those working in the parliamentary round. It presents one aspect of a wider thesis about parliamentary democracy and political journalism that underpins Ms Ester’s PhD research.

Ms Ester said Australian policies directed against leaks and whistleblowers and ineffective Freedom of Information laws present a direct challenge to the healthy operation of political journalism.

She believes federal politics in Australia is going through a cycle characterised by negative trends in attitudes, policies and media management strategies towards principles of open governance once considered as inherent to mature representative democracies.

“Events in recent years illustrate a serious deterioration in the interrelationship between parliamentarians, public servants and press gallery journalists.”.

Ms Ester’s paper draws on empirical data gathered from interviews with journalists in 25 of the 30 mainstream bureaus that constitute the 150-200 journalist members of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery (FFPG).