Australia's new gag law slammed

(CNN)More than 40 doctors, nurses, teachers and other humanitarian workers have signed an open letter to the Australian government, challenging a new bill that could put whistleblowers in jail for disclosing the conditions of Australian detention centers.

The Australian Border Force Bill, which came into effect Wednesday, allows for a jail sentence of up to two years for those that speak publicly about detention centers without the permission of the government.

John Paul Sanggaran, a doctor who used to work at an immigration center on Christmas Island -- an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean -- is circulating an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, "challenging the department to prosecute" him and others for exposing the "deplorable state of human rights" for asylum seekers in the centers.

"We have advocated, and will continue to advocate, for the health of those for whom we have a duty of care, despite the threats of imprisonment, becau