WikiLeaks: Australia bans reporting of corruption case involving Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam

[Newsjock]

https://wikileaks.org/aus-suppression-order/press.html

Today, 29 July 2014, WikiLeaks releases an unprecedented Australian censorship order concerning a multi-million dollar corruption case explicitly naming the current and past heads of state of Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, their relatives and other senior officials.

The super-injunction invokes “national security” grounds to prevent reporting about the case, by anyone, in order to “prevent damage to Australia's international relations”. The court-issued gag order follows the secret 19 June 2014 indictment of seven senior executives from subsidiaries of Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The case concerns allegations of multi-million dollar inducements made by agents of the RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia in order to secure contracts for the supply of Australian-style polymer bank notes to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.

... The document also specifically bans the publication of the order itself as well as an affidavit affirmed last month by Australia's representative to ASEAN Gillian Bird, who has just been appointed as Australia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The gag order effectively blacks out the largest high-level corruption case in Australia and the region.

The last known blanket suppression order of this nature was granted in 1995 and concerned the joint US-Australian intelligence spying operation against the Chinese Embassy in Canberra.

[LittleBlue]

1. Social media users could be charged for sharing Wikileaks story

Social media users could land themselves in legal hot water if they share Wikileaks' reporting of a secret suppression order made by the Victorian Supreme Court.

The wide-ranging suppression order was published on the group's website on Wednesday and was quickly shared on websites including Twitter and Google+.

Fairfax Media's report of Wikileaks' action created a strong response on social media, and was shared thousands of times within minutes of the exclusive report's publication.

It is against the law for Australian media organisations to publish the contents of the suppression order.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/social-media-users-could-be-charged-for-sharing-wikileaks-story-20140730-zye0b.html

How embarrassing for Australia.

[malaise]

2. Frightening indeed

Press freedom is dead - our privacy is dead but the governments' have more privacy than ever.

What an inversion of our constitutional rights.