Controversial Aussie YouTuber Avi Yemini says press freedom is dead after he lost his appeal against not being issued a press pass.
Controversial right-wing YouTuber Avi Yemini has slammed the Supreme Court for dismissing his appeal against Victorian parliamentary officials for denying him a press pass.
Yemini filed a lawsuit against three Victorian officials – including lower house speaker Colin Brooks – for not giving him a press pass last year. Yemini is the Australian Bureau Chief for Rebel News, a right-leaning Canadian publication.
In his lawsuit, Yemini had claimed that the personnel who had denied him a press pass did not have the authority to do so. Today, the Victorian Supreme Court, however, ruled that Yemini had failed to prove whether denying the press pass was out of the concerned official’s jurisdiction.
Yemini took to social media to slam the court’s decision and ask his followers to donate to his legal fund. “The Victorian Supreme Court has upheld a decision to refuse me a parliamentary press pass, giving Daniel Andrews complete control of media in Victoria‘s corridors of power. If he can do it to me, he can do it to anyone he wants. Press freedom is dead.” he said in a tweet.
As far as the refusal to issue a press pass was concerned, the court established that it had been Colin Brooks who had approved the action within the scope of his authority. “That decision was an exercise of parliament’s privilege to control access to the parliamentary precincts and the decision was within the exclusive cognisance or jurisdiction of parliament,” Supreme Court Justice Tim Ginnane said.
Ginnane went on to add: “The media accreditation scheme is not created by statute, nor resolution of the houses, it is an exercise of that privilege which has existed from ancient times.
“The exercise of that privilege is within the exclusive cognisance of the parliament and can be exercised by the speaker acting on its behalf or acting through an authorised officer.” he said.
