Guardian editor-in-chief questions new government terror laws

Alan Rusbridger (l) on stage with David Marr (r) last night

The editor-in-chief of The Guardian Alan Rusbridger has questioned whether new Australian laws designed to clampdown on whistleblowers would have seen him facing jail for revealing Australia’s phone tapping of the Indonesian president.

Last year The Guardian published a story gleaned from the leaked Edward Snowden files on US intelligence operations which claimed Australian officials had been tapping the phone on the Indonesian president and his wife.

Recently the Government passed anti-terrorism laws which take away from journalists the right to a public interest defence when publishing material about national security, which could see journalists forced to give up their sources and be jailed, even if a story were true.