ABC set to provide WA Police with protest footage

Activists are at risk of arrest after the ABC allegedly agrees to provide unedited protest footage from its flagship program to authorities.

The ABC have agreed to provide WA police with footage of climate activists protesting the Burrup Peninsula gas project from Four Corners, after investigators demanded the ABC breach the confidentiality of its sources and provide the unedited video.

The Four Corners special, titled Escalation, aired on October 9 and highlighted the clashing interests of gas project officials, state government politicians and climate activists over the WA gas project.

The footage in question shows the arrest of activists outside the home of energy executive Meg O’Neill, who heads the operations of Woodside Energy in WA.

Industrial development in the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia, which is home to the world's largest collection of rock art, as well as a recently lodged application to have the area listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

ABC’s surrender of the material was condemned by the activist group Disrupt Burrup Hub, with campaigner Desmond Blurton calling it “a deep betrayal”.

“I was filmed by Four Corners on multiple days as a part of the program they produced about police repression of climate protest in WA. I did not consent at any point to have my footage handed over to WA Police,” Mr Blurton said in a statement released by the protest group.

“I am deeply concerned that the ABC may cause the imprisonment of vulnerable people by surrendering source material to police.

“Given that I work on a number of other social issues affecting my First Nations community with other campaigners involved with Disrupt Burrup Hub, it is quite possible that confidential discussions that have no relevance to the Four Corners story were still captured by the ABC.

“I do not consent to WA police being given any of this footage, and if the ABC hand over any footage it will be a deep betrayal of people who trusted the ABC to give them a voice.”

Mr Blurton is also the Deputy Chair of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee.

The Burrup Peninsula plant is in proximity to traditional rock art at Murujuga, which has its UNESCO Heritage Status currently pending.

Appearing in Senate Estimates on Tuesday, ABC Managing Director David Anderson had told senators the sources integral to the Four Corners footage would not be released.

“We've always protected our sources, we always have, we always will,” Mr Anderson said.

“We could not comply with the full order to produce because otherwise it would have captured confidential sources, that‘s what we’ve been negotiating with WA Police.”

WA Police raided the home of journalist Eliza Kloser in May to seize her photography of the removal of rock art in order to make way for another industrial project in the region.

The WA police crackdown has received a range of criticisms, with over forty organisations, including the journalist’s union, the MEAA, calling on the ABC not to release footage into police custody.

Greens senator David Shoebridge commented on the release through social media platform X, calling it an “extremely disappointing development”.

Earlier on Thursday protesters gathered outside ABC offices in Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney to urge the ABC not to betray its source confidentiality.

The media adviser for Disrupt Burrup Hub, Jesse Noakes, is currently on trial for refusing to obey a data access order without reasonable excuse.

“Should the ABC surrender any Four Corners footage to WA Police, if any of these people face legal liability or criminal prosecution that will be entirely on the ABC – I hope the ABC management appreciate the full implications of that,” he said in a statement.

“If the ABC release Four Corners to WA Police, who would ever trust the ABC to tell their story again?”