Our elected “representatives” are busying themselves trying to dream up legislation and rules in order to prevent Bloggers and Citizens Media reporting on, or videoing public meetings and continuously refusing us interviews because we are not “accredited”.

But thanks to the recent Panorama programme on offshore finance centres the tide just might be on the turn or the penny might be starting to drop with some of our elected “representatives”

The “accredited” Media, on regular occasions, employ surreptitious filming techniques and covert surveillance is a part of everyday life. As Bloggers we do our very best to “play by the rules” set by our ruling elite. We ask permission to film public meetings and when, as so often, we are refused, we don’t resort to “secret filming”. Any elected member we film knows they are being filmed. But the question our elected leaders must soon have to be asking themselves is how long is it before they force the hand of the Bloggers and leave “us” no alternative other than to resort to more dubious practices in order to report events?

Because the mainstream media are, in the eyes of our government, “accredited” it seems they are looked upon as holier than thou. When the truth is they have their own agenda just as Bloggers do, the difference is that Bloggers don’t pretend otherwise.

Here Senator Ben Shenton reluctantly concedes that the argument for Bloggers (thanks to Panorama) has been strengthened!