Australia's censorship of information viewed as a key element in the free and open press has been accused of being one of the secret democracies in the world.

An old Australian spy was convicted last week of its unstated role as a whistleblower who disclosed an anti-Eastern Timor intelligence operation.

It is the most recent high-profile instance in a national system where secrecy rules are routinely used to conceal information, some of which date back to the colonial era. Police also threatened to prosecute journalists exposing claims of war crimes against Australian special forces or bureaucrats' plans to enable an intelligence agency to spy on the inhabitants of Australia.

The Australians even don't know Friday's former spy's name. He was named "Teacher K" by the Canberra Court Registry. He was more respectfully referred to by his lawyer as "Mr. K."

Two days in a black-screen box to mask his identity, K spent the hearing. When classified proof was discussed, about half time, the media and the public were sent out of the courtroom.

The only indication that anybody was in the box truly was when a voice told K how to plead.

During negotiations about sharing oil and gas revenue from the sea flood that separates the two countries, the Australian government refused to comment on allegations that K led an operation by the Australian Secret Intelligence Service that bugged government bureaux in the capital of East Timorese in 2004.

In support of the East Timorese, who said the Treaty was invalid since Australia fails to negotiate in good faith by participating in spy, the Government canceled K.'s passport before he testified at the Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration in The Hague in 2014.

At the open court of a bugging operation, there was no evidence that media reports have been carried out under the cover of an international humanitarian program.

The punishment was suspended for three months for K. K. If thrown in prison, court rules had been issued to hide his prior spy job by restricting his ability to explain his trouble to friends and colleagues.

He'd been in prison for up to two years. Australia has been tightening the limits on secrecy since its transgression, raising the maximum sentence to 10 years.

As weak in transparency as K's prosecution, the treatment of another rogue intelligence worker named Witness J by Australia was greatly improved.

J has been reported by the media as potentially the only person in Australian history to be tried, sentenced and imprisoned in secret. But nobody seems sure to know.

Like K, revealing the identity of J is unlawful.

In 2018 I pled guilty to charges of misuse of sensitive material and the possibility of revealing the identity of Australian agents in an enclosed courtroom in the same Canberra court complex. He was in jail for 15 months.

The secret hearing and detention were not published until the end of 2019 when J took legal action against the government of the Australian Capital Territory claiming his human rights to be being infringed.

The first major review of the national secrecy regulations since 2010 had then been sought by outraged lawyers. The threat of more than 70 counterterrorism and security legislation approved by the U.S. parliament since the 9/11 Attacks is present for whistleblower and journalists alike.

Andrew Wilkie, an old government intelligence specialist who is now an independent federal legislator, vocally criticizes national security as an apology for paranoia and humiliation.

K and his old lawyer, Bernard Collaery, had been prosecuted by Wilkie. Collaery fights an indictment claiming he had colluded with K to disclose East Timor's secrets and wants the trial open.

"We're eavesdropping on one of the poorest countries in the world to have an upper hand in business negotiations, I'm sure one of the reasons behind the secrecy in the K and Collaery issue."

Days before the Australian troops joined the U.S. and UK forces during the Iraq invasion of 2003, Wilkie left his intelligence work at the National Assessment Bureau. He openly stated that Iraq posed no threat enough to justify invading and that there was no proof that linked Iraq with al-Qaeda.

"I accused the administration essentially of lying," said Wilkie.

Although the administration tried to discredit him, Wilkie maintained that the prosecution for disclosing sensitive information had never been threatened.

For many, Australian authorities in June 2019 took too far to pursue and intimidate whistleblowers, and to safeguard government secrets.

Journalist Annika Smethurst and the Australian Broadcasting Corp's headquarters were raided by police home. As the foundation for public interest journalism, both media groups exploited leaked government information.

The search warrants were issued pursuant to Section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914 prohibiting the sharing of information by government staff without the approval of the supervisor.

Since then, this part has been replaced by national legislation on security, which extends the offense to encompass government employees who share thoughts or talk to each other.

Media law experts Johan Lidberg and Denis Muller have pointed out that Australia is the only Five Eyes alliance that provides security agencies with the power to issue searchable warrants against journalists to hunt for public interests whistleblowers on behalf of national security, including the USA, Britain, Canada, and NZ.

In May 2018, police decided to indict the journalist Smethurst on an article published in April 2018 that they had inadequate proof. She said that two executives of the government department sought to establish new spy forces to enable a spy agency to spy legally on Australian citizens.

In October last year, Prosecutors also held that ABC reporter Dan Oakes' "public interest does not need to be prosecuted" in a July 2017 television story alleging that Australian soldiers killed unarmed men and children in Afghanistan in possible war crimes.

But David McBride, an Australian former army lawyer who acknowledges the ABC to leak confidential material, fights several allegations. For being a whistleblower, he calculates he faces a sentence of up to 50 years.

Two parliamentary investigations into media freedom have been held after the police raids, although there have been criticisms of delayed and insufficient movement towards change.

Many submissions for change warned that 'the balance of legislation and culture in the Australian administration was tilted from transparency and commitment to excessive and unnecessary secrecy,' as the parliamentary Joint Intelligence and Security Committee has stamped numerous problem security legislation with a stamp.

A Senate press freedom committee inquiry last month issued a number of suggestions, especially for further government inquiries. The committee examined whether a harm threshold should be modified for secret information crimes and whether journalists should still be required to demonstrate that the public interest is not permitted to disclose.

Wilkie, the legislator, thinks that Australia's secrecy has slipped towards a "pre-police state"

"It's not uncommon for a government to cover up something that needs national security," Wilkie added. "We're no longer batting an eyelid. We ought to be indignant."