Landmark High Court challenge to Australia's ag-gag laws: News Coverage

#1. Thursday 25 Aug 2022 by Danielle Ireland-Piper (The Conversation)

What do farm animals have to do with the Australian Constitution? Should the public know what happens in abattoirs and farms? Do we have the right to publish footage of what happens to animals in slaughterhouses? Should governments be able to make laws criminalising it? How do we best protect...

#2. Wednesday 10 Aug 2022 by Stephen Rice (The Australian)

The High Court has upheld a law banning animal rights activists using hidden cameras to expose cruelty in farms and slaughterhouses, but left open the possibility that the media might be permitted to use the footage.

#3. Wednesday 10 Aug 2022 by Michaela Whitbourn (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The court left questions unanswered in upholding the validity of NSW laws prohibiting trespassers from publishing footage of lawful activities on private properties.

#4. Wednesday 10 Aug 2022 by Greta Stonehouse (AAP)

Animal rights activists say a High Court rejection of their challenge against surveillance laws in NSW prevents necessary exposure of the industry's animal cruelty.

#5. Wednesday 10 Aug 2022 by Christopher Knaus (The Guardian)

Animal rights activists have lost a landmark high court case against New South Wales laws criminalising the use of secretly recorded vision from farms and abattoirs, which they said prevented their attempts to blow the whistle on animal cruelty and abuse.

#6. Friday 26 Nov 2021 by Christopher Knaus (The Guardian)

Laws criminalising the use of secretly recorded vision of animal cruelty and abuse are posing “too great a burden on speech”, animal rights activists have told the high court.

#7. Monday 26 Jul 2021 by Chantelle Francis (The Weekly Times)

The money raised in just 23 days for a bid to change hidden camera laws includes a donation from a prominent Aussie philanthropist.

#8. Friday 16 Jul 2021 by Paul Gregoire (Sydney Criminal Lawyers)

Animal cruelty is something the majority of the population are aghast by. And it’s for this very reason that the authorities take draconian measures to keep the horrific practices that go on within factory farms and slaughterhouses far from the...

#9. Thursday 8 Jul 2021 by Serrin Rutledge-Prior and Tara Ward (The Conversation)

An Australian animal advocacy group is taking its campaign for greater transparency in animal-use industries from the streets to the High Court.

#10. Tuesday 29 Jun 2021 by Greta Stonehouse (The Canberra Times)

Surveillance laws in NSW have been used to "hinder the exposure of systemic, commercialised animal cruelty," animal rights activists have said as they launch a High Court case against the state.

#11. Tuesday 29 Jun 2021 by Christopher Knaus (The Guardian)

Exclusive: Animal rights activists say laws stopping them filming in slaughterhouses breach their right to freedom of political communication