STATEMENT from the Publishers
Email to: ethical_journalism_au@proton.me
Dear ‘Ethical Journalism Australia’
We acknowledge receipt of your unsolicited email dated August 11, 2025. Your email includes a chain of correspondence between yourself and a third party to whom you have posed many questions. You suggest that we forward your correspondence chain to Victoria Police, which we have done.
We note the following:
1. You have not identified a real person as a contact point for ‘Ethical Journalism Australia’. The only contact point provided by you is a Swiss Proton email account, notoriously used by people who wish to conceal their identity. There are no references to ‘Ethical Journalism Australia’ on Google search engines. All these factors lead us to regard your correspondence with deep suspicion.
2. This, then, is our formal request for you to supply us with the verifiable full name and contact details of the representative of ‘Ethical Journalism Australia’. Without such a demonstration of good faith by you, we do not believe we can take the matters any further. We likewise doubt whether Victoria Police could take your matters further in the absence of details of your identity.
3. It may well be argued that your chain of correspondence with the third party could in itself constitute harassment. There are potential federal law consequences for you, as you have used a carriage service to send multiple communications to the third party.
4. The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance publishes a Journalist Code of Ethics. Item 8 of the Code insists that every journalist “identify yourself and your employer before obtaining any interview for publication or broadcast”. You appear to have ignored this basic tenet of journalism ethics. Your correspondence and motives, therefore, must be regarded with cautious distrust.
Ash Long
Local Media Pty Ltd