Federal police officers who stormed the Canberra home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst were armed: report

New details have emerged about the AFP raid on the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, who could still face prosecution for publishing “secret government information”.

Australian Federal Police officers were carrying firearms when they raided the suburban Canberra home of a News Corporation Australia journalist last month, according to documents released under freedom of information (FoI) laws.

Nine Newspapers reports the documents also reveal that News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst could still face prosecution for publishing “secret government information”.

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Sunday Telegraph political editor Annika Smethurst at home in Canberra after the AFP raid. Picture: Gary Ramage

Ms Smethurst, political editor for The Sunday Telegraph, said last month that she found the police raid on her Canberra home “exceptionally confronting and an invasion of privacy”.

But the revelation that the officers in her home were armed - as were the officers who later raided the ABC - has sent new shockwaves through the Australian media landscape.

Among the FoI documents obtained by Nine Newspaperswas a series of rehearsed answers to possible questions from the media, titled “Talking points”, which noted that police were required under AFP rules to be armed in the execution of their duty.

New freedom of information documents show these federal police officers were carrying guns when they raided Ms Smethurst’s home. Picture: News Corp

Astonishingly, although “Talking points” was written four days before the raid on her home was executed, the document stated that the officers “behaved appropriately and in accordance with their responsibilities and legal obligations”.

After the seven-hour plus raid, Ms Smethurst told The Project: “I was just getting ready to go to work and I heard a knock on the door. I was actually expecting a house cleaner.

“And there was five AFP officers. They told me they had a warrant to search the property, once they realised I was home another two showed up.

“They were able to take everything off my phone.

USB drives found by armed AFP officers in the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst. Picture: Gary Ramage

“My search history, every phone call, every text message, every screenshot. I’m a 30-something-year-old woman I had something like 15,000 photos in my phone and they went through them in front of me.”

She told The Daily Telegraph: “This was put upon me and I felt very intimidated. The fact they came to my house was exceptionally confronting and quite an invasion of privacy.

“They went through my bookshelves and through the pages of every book, cookbooks, page by page. They found things I didn’t know I had.

“They looked in my oven, behind picture frames, through every DVD, through my Christmas decorations.

“If I went looking for a USB in my house I wouldn’t know where one was but they managed to find 17 in different drawers and pockets.”

AFP officers searching Ms Smethurst’s kitchen. Picture: Supplied

The raid prompted outrage from News Corp, which said it was a “dangerous act of intimidation” targeted at public interest reporting.

The Nine Newspapers report said the AFP had also planned to raid News Corp Australia’s Surry Hills headquarters but decided not to proceed.

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In April 2018, Ms Smethurst reported that the heads of the defence and home affairs ministries had discussed draconian new powers to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time.

Under the mooted plan, spies would be allowed to secretly access emails, bank accounts and text messages with approval from the defence and home affairs ministers.

AFP officers leave the ABC headquarters in Ultimo. Picture: Damian Shaw

The AFP is likely to be ordered to front a parliamentary inquiry to explain how the raids came about and what was behind their planning.

The FoI documents include emails between officers which suggest the act of publishing the sensitive material has been a focus of the police investigations.

Yet Attorney-General Christian Porter last month said “there is absolutely no suggestion that any journalist is the subject of the present investigations”.

The leak reported by Ms Smethurst, according to the FoI documents, was immediately referred to police, who assessed its impact as “routine” and value to the AFP “low”. Within four days, the investigation was officially declared a “corruption” incident of “critical” impact and “high” value to police.

A photo tweeted by ABC News Executive Editor John Lyons showing AFP officers raiding the ABC. Picture: John Lyons, Twitter

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks, ABC managing director David Anderson and News Corp corporate affairs director Campbell Reid met with the Attorney-General at Parliament this week but were not given a guarantee that the journalists would be spared prosecution.

Mr Porter said last month that he would be “seriously disinclined” to authorise the prosecution of journalists.