The voice interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for “retrospective retrieval,” and related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere.

In the initial deployment, collection systems are recording “every single” conversation nationwide, storing billions of them in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive, according to a classified summary.

Some twisted crap from the new Templeton Prize Winner:

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull lost an internal battle with Prime Minister Tony Abbott over whether businessman Joseph Skrzynski should be appointed to a second term as SBS chairman.

Fairfax Media understands Mr Turnbull lobbied strongly for the investment banker - whose five-year term expires next Wednesday - to remain in the position but was overruled by the Prime Minister's office.

In a statement released on Monday, Mr Turnbull praised Mr Skrzynski as an "outstanding chairman" and said that "SBS is a stronger organisation for his leadership".

Male-dominated talkback radio schedules and Q&A panels aren't outliers in an otherwise gender-equal world - they're representative of how women are routinely sidelined in Australian society, writes Clementine Ford.

A French court has ordered a news website to withdraw recordings an adviser secretly took of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy during his 2012 election campaign.

A talkback caller to the ABC's Radio National station who discussed class systems in Australia, and described himself as "Barnaby in New South Wales", has turned out to be Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.

The purpose of art is complex... Some people think it's to put pretty pictures on walls... or to glorify Stalin or the Duke of Wellington in oil...  Being an artist is a job using representative skills and value judgement of interpretation. Many skills are often needed to be good. Some of the value judgements may be right or wrong, deliberate or accidental. But a lot of art is designed to challenge long established perceived ideas, including the self-worth of itself.

Significant communication problems within domestic spy agency ASIO led to an alleged Egyptian terrorist being cleared for community detention, a report has found.

The Institute of Public Affairs, which is closely linked to the Liberal party, has voiced its opposition to the entire concept of a national curriculum, saying the process was vulnerable to politicisation.

Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull says there is a strong argument to change cross-media ownership rules due to the rise of the internet.

The Government is considering changes to the laws, which currently prevent common ownership of radio, television stations and newspapers in the same market.