Regarding pay rises for AWA staff, Andrew Biocca, News Ltd Group Employment Relations Manager, said last week: "We have never ‘automatically’ paid AWA staff pay increases from when the EBA increases fall due."

The recent announcement of 10 editorial job cuts at the Hobart Mercury means the paper’s owner, News Limited, has now axed at least 80 journalists from its Australian newspapers in recent months.

The 10th annual Public Affairs conference is being held in Sydney on May 18th and 19th. Check out our live blog. It's almost as good as being there! Click here to go to the blog.

A proposal from news publishers including News Limited, Fairfax Media and APN to dramatically slash the Australian Press Council’s budget would seriously hamper its vital work in handling ethics complaints and lobbying Government on press freedom issues. Click Read more for a detailed look at the issues.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has welcomed the increased funding for the ABC and SBS in this week’s Federal Budget but it falls short of the Government's pre-election pledge.  Click  Read more to see our full press release.

The raid on the Sunday Times, deportations from Fiji, some clarity on defamation law, inside the draft FoI legislation, what’s wrong with whistleblower protection, and the ongoing secrecy in government. The Alliance’s annual report card on the state of press freedom in Australia was launched at Friday’s Alliance Press Freedom Dinner and is available for download here.