Urgent push for a media inquiry - 48 hours left!

By AVAAZ

On Tuesday PM Gillard will decide whether to support a full inquiry to clean up our media -- and an urgent outcry from all of us now could swing the decision.

Last week, The Australian, Murdoch’s flagship newspaper, was caught publishing lies about the Prime Minister -- proving that we need to look deeply into the state of our media. And powerful Labour MPs are supporting the inquiry, but Murdoch’s press is rabidly campaigning against it. We can drown out their lobby and bring an overwhelming call for change.

Let’s send our MPs a flood of messages calling for a robust media inquiry -- and help our MPs and the PM take this critical first step to save our democracy from manipulation and lies at the hands of media moguls. Send an urgent message directly to Parliament now and forward this to your friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/last_push_for_media_inquiry/?vl

Rupert Murdoch owns 70% of Australia’s newspapers, which have relentlessly bashed politicians who contest his pro-billionaire, pro-pollution agenda. But MPs and our PM are growing increasingly fed up with his bullying and are speaking out against the sorry state of our press -- where concentration of media ownership has given Murdoch’s manipulative journalism a disproportionate influence over our policy-making.

On Tuesday, the Greens will submit a draft plan for the media inquiry to the Senate to debate the following day. They’ve campaigned tirelessly for media reform but can’t win without the government’s support. We have 48 hours to get the MPs’ and Gillard’s attention. And we can see that our outcry is working -- just last week, after receiving hundreds of Avaaz members’ calls, the powerful Minister Anthony Albanese publicly slammed Murdoch reporting.

Let’s make sure our voices overwhelm the lobbyists -- click below to send a message to MPs now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/last_push_for_media_inquiry/?vl

Together, Avaaz members stood up to Rupert Murdoch in the UK, when everyone said it couldn’t be done -- and won. In Australia, we’ve steadily built momentum and are taking on one of the greatest threats to our democracy. Let’s come together now to protect our media and our democracy.

With hope,

Stephanie, Ben, Alice, Ricken, Maria Paz, Wen-Hua and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES

Greens press government to support media inquiry
http://www.theage.com.au/national/greens-press-government-to-support-med...

PM to make call on media inquiry amid News dispute
http://www.smh.com.au/national/pm-to-make-call-on-media-inquiry-amid-new...

Fair, balanced reporting not on Murdoch agenda
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/fair-balanced-reporting-not-on-mu...

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Avaaz.org is a 9-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages.

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