Animal activists' court battle and its implications for press freedom

Minutes after midnight one day in early January 2024, three people crept into an abattoir in Eurobin, midway between Myrtleford and Bright in regional Victoria. The trio, associated with animal rights group Farm Transparency Project, installed covert video recorders to capture footage of goats being slaughtered for export. Obviously enough, they did so without the knowledge or permission of the abattoir owners, the Game Meats Company (GMC).

Members associated with the group returned over the subsequent months, and that May they sent some of the footage to the Department of Agriculture, which regulates animal slaughter. In later court filings, the group would allege the video showed animal cruelty. A few days later, Farm Transparency sent it to Channel Seven and temporarily posted it online.

The row over the filming and distribution of the video has sparked a novel legal battle that has gone all the way to the High Court of Australia. Given its potential consequences for press freedom and whistleblowing, the court gave our organisations – the Human Rights Law Centre's Whistleblower Project, and the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom – permission to participate in the case as friends of the court. The case proceeded in Canberra on Tuesday and a decision is expected in the coming months.