YET the Search Warrant that named Clark and Oakes was not used to access the Melbourne ABC Offices where they are based …
IT looks like the Scomo Government will have to contend with an uproar over what appears to be a post-election get-square against informants of journalists who have annoyed security agencies.
AND mixed into this will be questions as to how much the Government supports freedom of the press.
IS this the emergence of a pattern?
ABC’s Sydney headquarters raided by Australian Federal Police over Afghan Files stories
5 JUNE 2019
Australian Federal Police officers are raiding the ABC’s Sydney headquarters over a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files.
Key points:
- The AFP said there would not be any arrests today
- ABC managing director David Anderson said the broadcaster “stands by its journalists” and “will protect its sources”
- An AFP statement said the warrant was not linked to an AFP raid on a Canberra News Corp journalist’s home on Tuesday
The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and were based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to the ABC.
The search warrant names Oakes, Clark and the ABC’s director of News Gaven Morris.
Three AFP officers entered the ABC first, followed shortly afterwards by three police IT technicians.
AFP officers served the ABC legal team with a warrant and are searching for, and copying onto hard drives, information related to the warrant.
The AFP told the ABC they want to search through email systems in relation to the people mentioned in the search warrant and were searching “data holdings” between April 2016 and July 2017.
They are also searching for article drafts, graphics, digital notes, visuals, raw television footage and all versions of scripts related to The Afghan Files stories.
By lunchtime, 9,214 items have been found which match search terms listed in the warrant.
The ABC and the AFP are now negotiating and debating whether or not each of these items fit the terms of the warrant.
ABC ‘will protect its sources’
ABC managing director David Anderson said it was “highly unusual for the national broadcaster to be raided in this way”.
“This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and Defence matters,” he said.
“The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest.”
ABC editorial director Craig McMurtrie described the raid as a “very unwelcome and serious development”.
“This was outstanding reporting … it was clearly in the public interest and sometimes difficult truths have to be told,” he said.
“We will be doing everything we can to limit the scope of this and we will do everything we can to stand by our reporters.”
Mr Morris, the ABC’s director of news who is named in the warrant, said “journalism is not a crime”.
“Our journalists do a really difficult job, I’m proud of what they do, they do it in the public’s interest,” he said.
“I’d say to all the journalists at the ABC and all the journalists across Australia, don’t be afraid of the job you do.
“Stand up and be proud of it and continue to act in the public’s interest knowing the stories you tell and the service you provide the community is a vital one for our democracy.”
‘Not linked’ to News Corp journalist’s home raid
The raid comes one day after the AFP executed search warrants at the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, who had reported on secret plans to allow government spying.
The AFP released a statement saying no arrests were planned today and the warrant was “not linked to a search warrant executed in Canberra yesterday”.
The search warrant was “in relation to allegations of publishing classified material, contrary to provisions of the Crimes Act 1914” and “relates to a referral received on 11 July 2017 by the Chief of the Defence Force and the then-Acting Secretary for Defence” the statement said.
The ABC has sought comment from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally said Labor had requested a briefing from Mr Dutton’s office “to seek to understand why raids of such nature are warranted”.
“Freedom of the press is an essential component of our democracy,” she said.
The ABC’s Melbourne offices, where Clark and Oakes are based, have not been raided by the AFP.
The Afghan Files
- #1: Leaked documents expose deadly secrets of Australian special forces
- #2: An interrogation, a shooting and no witnesses
- #3: What the documents reveal about killings of unarmed Afghans
- #4: The spy and the SAS soldier with a loaded Glock
- #5: Who is the enemy? Australia’s secretive rules of engagement
- #6: What the f*** are you doing?: Chaos over severed hands
- #7: Relations between Australia’s special forces units on ‘knife edge’
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