Two days into the new year, with the silly season pretty well over, seems the perfect time to reflect on some of the people and stories that captured our attention in 2025 as we slow down with summer and take stock of how far, or otherwise, we’ve come.

Poetry is often a perfect partner for reflection and we spend a few minutes towards the end of the hour listening to some original words by Schwartz Media CEO and editor-in-chief Eric Jensen, who was in the Byron Shire last year for what ended being a washed-out and largely cancelled  Byron Writers Festival in Bangalow.

Most of the conversation is related to the news industry in Australia and the contributions of independent journalism like that at Schwartz Media but Erik Jensen also happens to be a wonderful and generous published poet, so we get the best of both worlds in today’s program.

We also listen back to how a few major turning points played out in Australia’s legal systems in 2025, including compensation for victims of police strip searches at the 2018 Splendour in the Grass music festival here in Byron; a summary of final submissions in the live-streamed so-called ‘Save Wallum’ case featuring activists, housing developers and threatened species over at Brunswick Heads; and we start with the status of whistleblower protection in Australia, as back in May we heard of two important cases, the failed appeal for Australian Afghan Files whistleblower David McBride and separately, the jail sentence for prominent Australian whistleblower, Richard Boyle, formerly of the Australian Taxation Office.

1. Double blow for whistleblower protection in Australia featuring Greens Senator and party spokesperson for justice David Shoebridge (Dr John Jiggens)
2. Lismore lawyer for teen illegally strip-searched at Splendour in the Grass welcomes Supreme Court findings featuring Tracey Randall Legal Principal Solicitor Tracey Randall
3. Five threatened species take to the stand featuring Save Wallum campaigner Svea Pittman (Michelle Michels, Eco Futures)
4. Poetry in the rain with Schwartz Media CEO Erik Jensen featuring Schwartz Media CEO and Editor in Chief Erik Jensen

 *producer: Mia Armitage. Reports produced by Mia Armitage unless otherwise indicated. Tune in to the Community Newsroom on Fridays from 11am-12 on Bay FM 99.9 or listen online at bayfm.org
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PIC: Schwartz Media CEO and Editor in Chief Erik Jensen, Byron Writers Festival 2025 (Mia Armitage)