ABC footage ‘betrayal’ leads to activist arrests
Climate activists say the national broadcaster had repeatedly reassured them that they would rather face criminal charges and police raids than hand over video to police.
Climate activists accused the ABC of betraying them after Four Corners footage handed to police by the national broadcaster led to the arrest of three more protesters.
The ABC is understood to have given police more than 20 hours of previously unseen footage shot as part of a recent Four Corners report about Disrupt Burrup Hub’s actions against oil and gas producer Woodside Energy.
The broadcaster was widely criticised after a Four Corners film crew accompanied Disrupt Burrup Hub activists to a planned protest at the Perth home of Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill.
Police were lying in wait at the home and arrested four people involved in the attempted protest.
There had also been calls from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance for the ABC to resist orders from state police for the footage, arguing that such a move would breach journalistic ethics.
Disrupt Burrup Hub media adviser Jesse Noakes earlier this month escaped jail over his refusal to comply with a similar order to hand over his devices to police, and instead was fined $250 for each of the four charges laid against him.
He said the ABC’s decision to hand over the footage was a “massive violation”.
“To produce a story about Woodside’s control of the WA government and police and then immediately surrender vulnerable sources to those same powerful interests makes the ABC culpable,” Mr Noakes said.
“It is a betrayal of their sources, it is a betrayal of their story, and it is a betrayal of journalism.”
He said the arrest of three more people vindicated the group’s warnings about the consequences of the ABC’s compliance with the order. “Throughout the production of this story, Four Corners repeatedly told Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners to trust them,” he said.
“I was repeatedly reassured by Four Corners … that they would face criminal charges and raids of Ultimo by WA police rather than hand over any footage.”
One of the people arrested on Thursday, Tahlia Stolarski, said police had confirmed to her that she had been arrested as a result of the ABC footage.
Nicholas Doyle, also charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, said he felt “completely betrayed” by the ABC.
“This is exactly what we feared would happen if the ABC surrendered their sources to police, and now it has,” he said.
An ABC spokeswoman repeated an earlier statement noting it had received a compulsory legal process seeking access to material. “Any suggestion the ABC has disclosed or will disclose material in breach of any undertaking to a confidential source is incorrect,” she said.
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