A Free Press: 200 Years

In our modern liberal democracy, we expect the press and other media channels to be able to express free opinion without censorship or the intervention of government. This was not always the case; early newspapers in the colonies existed primarily to promulgate the wishes of government and quash any dissent, particularly among the convict population.

In 1824, the first two uncensored newspapers were published in the colonies. The first was edition no. 422 of the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser, printed on 4 June by then Government Printer Andrew Bent (c. 1791–1851), a former convict. Before publication, all proofs of the newspaper had to be submitted for government censorship. In May 1824, just as the popular Lieutenant Governor Sorrell was replaced by the less liberal George Arthur, tensions arose between Bent and his government-appointed editor. Bent replaced him with an editor sympathetic to the ideals of a free press, and on 4 June, printed the newspaper without submitting the proofs. Arthur resisted Bent’s move, claiming the Gazette as government property, but was thwarted when Bent, who owned the printing equipment, successfully appealed to the Governor in Chief, Sir Thomas Brisbane. Bent’s newspaper proceeded to criticise and attack the government. He was dismissed as Government Printer in June 1825, convicted of libeling the authorities, fined and imprisoned. He continued to print newspapers, often critical of government and private individuals, and was repeatedly prosecuted for libel before moving to Sydney in 1839.

The second uncensored newspaper was The Australian, first printed in Sydney on 14 October 1824 and published until 1848. The owners of the paper were lawyer Robert Wardell (1793¬–1834) and eminent explorer, landowner and lawyer William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872), who brought a printing press and type with them when they arrived in Sydney from Britain in July that year. The broadsheet championed liberal views and received the approval of Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, who “considered it most expedient to try the experiment of the full latitude of the freedom of the Press”. The first edition of the paper declared it to be “independent, yet consistent—free, yet not licentious—equally unmoved by favours and by fear—we shall pursue our labours without either a sycophantic approval of, or a systematic opposition to, acts of authority, merely because they emanate from government”. Government censorship of newspapers was abandoned in New South Wales from this point.

The two newspapers were crucial in helping to establish the free press in Australia. They gave voice to all, including the disenfranchised and convicts, and created a forum for calling the colonial government to account.