Editors around Australia are not likely to respond favourably to potential requests from the Federal Government that they not publish potentially damaging information revealed by WikiLeaks.
As the whistleblower group continues to drip feed thousands of US diplomatic cables, Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the Government's focus is on minimising the fallout of their release.
While Australia has been mentioned in some despatches, the main revelations have included details of the poor reputation Iran's president holds among his peers and evidence that China's commitment to North Korea is wavering badly. "From my point of view, there is potentially some documentation that relates to national security-sensitive information that could prejudice the national security interests of Australia," Mr McClelland said.
He says media organisations could be asked to refrain from publishing some of the WikiLeaks material.
"There has been an information protocol, I think it's fair to say, among Australian media that if they receive representations from national security or law enforcement authorities that material could be prejudicial, that they will often refrain from publishing the material. Read more.