The Private Media Bill

Kevin Winston — International Correspondent

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE RESIGNATION OF LACHLAN WALKER.

Recently, the Reform Party has formed in BUK led by Lachlan Walker. The right-wing party’s goal is to make sure all citizens deserve rights. But could the new proposed Private Media Bill be doing the opposite of that? Let's find out, with an analysis of this bill.

On May 1st, the Reform Party released Proposed Legislation called the Private Media Bill. The bill starts off with requiring all press companies in BUK to be privately owned. It also states that government officials including members of parliament are not permitted to manage press companies. This will force news outlets like Global News to close down. The privatization of news outlets will also greatly affect public news companies like Euronews. These public news outlets might even move out of BUK in order to maintain their status as a public company.

Section 2 of the bill cancels out freedom of the press, and almost even makes it unrealistic. News reports must be un-biased, and members of parliament are not allowed to share their pollical views. Criminal Charges/Jail-Time will be given to those who do not follow the bill.

Now should you be worried about this bill passing? Certainly not. The fact that it cancels out freedom of the press will make it very hard to pass parliament, and along with that the parliament is conservative majority. The idea of a bill like this is also very absurd, and if it appears again, it will likely be short-lived. Click on this text here to see the proposed legislation document.