Suffering in Silence: Prohibitions on Interviewing Prisoners in Australia, the US and the UK

In all Australian States and Territories, journalists and researchers can be charged with a criminal offence if they interview a prisoner without government permission. The dangers of such laws, both in terms of free speech and preventing miscarriages of justice, have been recognised in both the US and the UK. Yet in 2005, an Australian investigative journalist was charged with unlawfully interviewing a prisoner in Queensland. This article contrasts the Australian position with that of the US and the UK and examines the constitutional, administrative and human rights law arguments against these oppressive Australian laws.