WA’s ‘post and boast’ laws could punish independent reporting

I was driving last year when I caught traffic at Perth CBD. A few Gaza protesters parked a truck in Wellington ST and locked themselves on the roof. I wasn’t involved in this protest – I just got there – but I went out and filmed A quick video This was sent to Socials for a new media organization I established, Last place in the world.

A few months later, he won the first stage in the scene where someone sprayed the clown makeup and made a swastika cross in a WA deputy office that changed his name to “Aussie Trump. I bought a few photos and one SPECIAL NEWS STORY On our website. This was taken by the story Western AustraliaCommercial TV and ABC.

If the WA government is on its way, these examples of the highly basic media work can be sentenced to imprisonment of up to three years soon.

Today, the Western Australian Parliament is preparing to discuss the new “mail and boasting” laws, which the State said that the Workers Government will target “Crimfluencers ,, that is to be able to steal vulnerable children Send the chase in Tiktok.

However, Constitutional lawyers, non -governmental groups and environmentalists talked about another result of these laws yesterday: a threat of peaceful protests and further accusation and media freedom.

This new legislation makes it illegal to publish illegal activities in a way that aims to “boast”, “glorify” or “encourage others to act similar behaviors online. In particular, it will be accused of a movement that seems to be designed to share images of small crimes such as unauthorized entry, material damage or illegal Assembly, especially to suppress the political protest.

If it is not deliberate, Western Australian University of Constitutional Law, Associate Professor Murray Wesson says that the new legislation is probably contrary to the constitution.

“The extraordinary wide nature of the crime has the potential to reduce and cooling free political communication in Western Australia, incompatible with the constitutional freedom of political communication,” he said.

According to Tom Penglis, a lawyer and founding partner of the WA Justice Association, the proposed laws may also apply to people who have previously reorganized the content previously published online.

“I have no doubt that this will create a ‘dissemination’ relevant materials,” he said. “‘Publication’ definition is deliberately extremely wide.”

In accordance with the proposed legislation, one may only be responsible for a person who reorganized the Palestinian protest-if he was not a prisoner for the original event or abroad.

Penglis, “Wherever the behavior in the world, if the behavior is a ‘relevant crime’ according to WA law, it catches the bill,” he said. “So, if I shared images of preventive protests in the United States or people who strongly protested against a repressive authoritarian regime, this material would be caught.”

The scope of the legislation is not limited to sharing the material open to the public.

Penglis said, “This is not only valid to send it to social media. “I think it would have a very creepy effect on free speech in Western Australia.”

In new laws, there is a carving for journalists or news publishers, but I can’t wait to see that the Perth Magistrates’ Court is trying to decide that the Magistrate Court was classified as “media” in 2025.

As the founder of a new media operation and as a media consultant to direct action campaigns Bray HubSharing contentious content has been my stock in trade for years. Two years ago, I Hundreds in prison Shortly after ABC delivering its resources, because it refused to explain my resources to the WA police Four corners The story about the climate protest.

This legislation effectively blames the entire 2023 cut burup hub campaign. Four corners. However, I am even more concerned about freedom of expression and its influence on media freedom. Is Hannah Ferguson a legitimate journalist? At least weiss is a legitimate journalist? Am I?

In the upper parliament, the Wa greens, which hold the balance of power in the upper Assembly, promised to direct the “mail and pride” legislation to a parliamentary committee for further examination. In a fun way, the liberal -led opposition said it would support the examination of the greens yesterday, but only because the legislation it supports has not yet gone forward enough.

I never called myself a journalist, but I may have to start.

This article was first published Last place in the world.