The Australian Federal Police (AFP) used national security laws to access the metadata of journalists nearly 60 times in just one year, according to a new disclosure that will be used to pressure the government to strengthen press freedom. According to a Sydney Morning Herald report, as Labour demanded answers over revelations the AFP asked Qantas to hand over the private travel records of a senior ABC journalist, documents submitted to a review of Australia's mandatory data retention regime have for the first time revealed the extent to which police have examined the communications history of reporters. The 2015 laws, which force telecommunications companies to store their customers' detailed phone and Internet records for two years, also require government agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing data that risks identifying a journalist's source. The whole process is conducted in secret and anyone who reports the existence of a warrant faces two years in jail. Documents prepared by the AFP show investigators were granted two special ‘journalist information warrants’ in the 2017-18 financial year, and used those warrants to access journalist metadata on 58 separate occasions. Australia's Right to Know coalition, which represents major media organisations, including the ABC, Nine, News Corp, AAP and the SBS, has urged federal MPs conducting the metadata review to abolish the journalist information warrant and insert a blanket exemption for journalists. Journalists are not notified when a warrant application has been made and have no ability to argue against it.