Australian Federal Police raids on journalists attack all our freedoms
Witch-hunts that threaten whistleblowers while perpetuating cover-ups and corruption are more at home in China and North Korea. The Australian media needs to hold the powerful to account, and lift the lid on matters of vital public importance.
Opinion
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All Australians, not just journalists and the media industry, need to be alarmed at the gross overreach by government in enabling police raids this week.
On Tuesday morning, Australian Federal Police officers raided the Canberra home of Sunday Herald Sun political editor Annika Smethurst in search of material related to a government leak about cyber spying.
Smethurst last year broke the story of discussions between Defence and Home Affairs ministries on radical new espionage powers that would see the Australian Signals Directorate monitor Australian citizens for the first time.
READ: THE STORY THAT SPARKED RAID ON SMETHURST’S HOME
Under the plan — quickly kiboshed by then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull — emails, bank accounts and text messages of Australians could be secretly accessed by spies without trace or warrant.
Yesterday, the ABC’s Sydney head office was raided by the AFP looking for material related to leaked government documents on Australian troops’ actions in Afghanistan.
ABC stories by investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark were based on the so-called Afghan Files and revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by our special forces in the war zone.
Both the Sunday Herald Sun and the ABC reports lifted a lid on matters of vital public importance.
The material they were based on did not divulge specific operational sensitivities of the ASD or the Australian Defence Force, nor did they place personnel at risk.
The ASD did not, at that time or since, have the domestic cyber intrusion powers being sought, and Australia’s combat operations in Afghanistan had long ceased.
The reports were, undoubtedly, an embarrassment to the government and the organisations involved, but were fundamental in holding them to account on behalf of the Australian community which funds them and which they are designed to serve.
Like anyone else, journalists are not above the law. But the media has a unique and solemn responsibility to shine a light on government and on the operations of government agencies to uncover overstep, mismanagement or malfeasance.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who are believed to have been warned about the raids, say the AFP investigations were launched by senior public servants and at arm’s length from ministers.
These raids, in which warrants were used to search journalists’ records, were a direct attack on the crucial work of the Australian media and its ability to hold the powerful to account.
In order to identify and publish vital information — protected by robust principles of being in the public interest — sources of information must be protected and know they will be protected.
MORE: INSIDE JOURNO’S CONFRONTING SEVEN-HOUR POLICE RAID
OPINION: JOURNO RAID MORE THAN PRIVACY INVASION
ABC RAIDED DAY AFTER HERALD SUN JOURNALIST’S HOME
The timing of both raids, within weeks of the Coalition re-election but more than a year after the stories were first published, smacks of opportunism given the searches would have been highly contentious during an election campaign.
Mr Morrison claims the raids were not a strike against press freedoms: “Australia believes strongly in the freedom of the press and we have clear rules and protections for freedom of the press,” he said.
We disagree, Mr Morrison. Witch-hunts threaten whistleblowers and perpetuate cover-ups and corruption.
These attacks against media freedoms are usually the preserve of China and North Korea.
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