‘Simply doing their job’: Police Commissioner Karen Webb backtracks
The NSW Police Commissioner has backed down on her claim the media “compromised” the investigation into the explosive-laden caravan discovered in Dural, saying she did not intend to blame The Daily Telegraph.
NSW
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Police Commissioner Karen Webb has backed down on her claim that media reporting about the explosive-laden caravan discovered in Dural had “compromised” an ongoing terror investigation.
Ms Webb told ABC Radio on Thursday that she had not intended to blame The Daily Telegraph for “simply doing its job”.
“I respect the role that the media has,” she said.
“The media is simply doing their job; they’ve got a job to do and I understand that,” she said.
However, Ms Webb said she was “concerned” about who leaked the information, suggesting it may have come from someone outside NSW.
“I’m concerned about where a leak might have come, from those people that have had access to this material.
“It’s not just NSW, it’s much broader than that, and that will, you know, hopefully be revealed in time,” she said.
Earlier, Premier Chris Minns backed “breakthrough journalism” from the Telegraph, while also criticising the person who leaked information.
He described the story as “good investigative journalism,” and said authorities needed to “play the ball where it lands”.
Earlier, Ms Webb claimed that media reporting had “compromised” the investigation, and had been “detrimental to some of the strategies we may have used”.
She said NSW Police had to recalibrate their investigation after it was made public.
She and Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson defended not releasing information about the potential terror attack sooner, saying they kept the investigation under-wraps in order to try to find and arrest those responsible.
The Daily Telegraph was in contact with senior NSW Police officials throughout the day and only broke the news after getting the all-clear, so as not to jeopardise a police operation.
Originally published as ‘Simply doing their job’: Police Commissioner Karen Webb backtracks
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