BBC Statement Re AFP Raids – An Attack on Press Freedom

Kerry O'Brien

Chair of the Walkley Foundation and long-time presenter of the ABC's 7.30 program Kerry O'Brien says this week's AFP raids on the ABC and a News Corp journalist are "unprecedented".

He tells Patricia Karvelas "people have to be really clear about what’s at stake here."


"If they care about democracy, this does go to the heart of democracy and the democratic process."



World media condemns Australian Federal Police raids targeting journalists

Two Australian Federal Police raids targeting journalists who exposed sensitive information about defence and intelligence agencies have sparked an international outcry. 

The AFP raid on the ABC's headquarters in Sydney over 2017 stories about Australia's special forces in Afghanistan followed a police search of a News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst's Canberra home. 

He tells Patricia Karvelas "people have to be really clear about what’s at stake here."


"If they care about democracy, this does go to the heart of democracy and the democratic process."

World media condemns Australian Federal Police raids targeting journalists

The AFP raid on the ABC's headquarters in Sydney over 2017 stories about Australia's special forces in Afghanistan followed a police search of a News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst's Canberra home. 

Reef Greef

ACTU – Raids on Media

Second AFP raid in two days on media a disturbing threat to press freedom
5 June 2019

The peak body for working people condemns two raids on journalists and media organisations by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in 24 hours.

The AFP raid of ABC offices and three of its staff today is both a disturbing Government attack on press freedom and highlights the need for strong protections for whistle-blowers in the public and private sectors, in this case in The Afghan Files.

Journalism relies on being able to protect sources that are shedding light on secretive practices and poor behaviour by governments and businesses. A journalists’ code of ethics prevents them from revealing their sources.

The ABC raid is alarming and seriously threatens journalists’ ability to properly publicly scrutinise matters of national security and defence.

The union movement experienced a disgraceful abuse of state power in 2017, when an office of working people’s representatives were raided by representatives of the Registered Organisations Commission and the AFP.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Assistant Secretary Liam O’Brien

“Two raids in just 24 hours on journalists and news organisations is a serious impingement on the freedom of press in Australia.

“It is outrageous that more than two years after a story was reported, but just weeks after a federal election result, the AFP are now raiding the ABC’s offices.

“We cannot allow police raids of working journalists and news organisations in Australia to become the norm.

“These raids are designed to intimidate journalists and media organisations and hunt down sources that reveal what governments are doing.

“These raids also come at a time when the public’s right to know is crucial.”

NYT – Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy

SYDNEY, Australia — One journalist is being investigated for reporting that several boats filled with asylum seekers recently tried to reach Australia from Sri Lanka. Another reporter had her home raided by the authorities this week after reporting on a government plan to expand surveillance powers.

Then on Wednesday, the Australian federal police showed up at the main public broadcaster with a warrant for notes, story pitches, emails, and even the diaries for entire teams of journalists and senior editors — all in connection with a 2017 article about Australian special forces being investigated over possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

The aggressive approach — which Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, has defended — fits with a global trend. Democracies from the United States to the Philippines are increasingly targeting journalists to ferret out leaks, silence critics and punish information sharing — with President Trump leading the verbal charge by calling journalists “the enemy of the people.”

But even among its peers, Australia stands out. No other developed democracy holds as tight to its secrets, experts say, and the raids are just the latest example of how far the country’s conservative government will go to scare officials and reporters into submission.

“To be perfectly frank, this is an absolute international embarrassment,” said Johan Lidberg, an associate professor of journalism at Monash University in Melbourne who works with the United Nations on global press freedom. “You’ve got a mature liberal democracy that pursues and hunts down whistle-blowers and tries to kill the messenger.”

The symptoms of what Mr. Lidberg describes as a national illness go beyond the latest investigations, and the causes are rooted in Australia’s history, law and public complacency.

Australia does not have a constitutional protection for freedom of speech. But its criminal code does have Section 70, which makes it a crime for any public official to share information without “lawful authority or excuse.”

That “secrecy foundation” — the law cited in the warrant against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the target of Wednesday’s raids — essentially states that no one in government can share information without a supervisor’s permission. It has been on the books since 1914, just after the outbreak of World War I, and is modeled on Britain’s draconian Official Secrets Act of 1911.

MEAA Second AFP raid a disturbing 'new normal' that seeks to criminalise journalism

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5TH, 2019 #MEAAMEDIA #PRESSFREEDOM FEATURED NEWS MEAA

Two raids by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on journalists and media organisations within the last 24 hours represent a disturbing attempt to intimidate legitimate news journalism that is in the public interest, says the union for Australian journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA).

Yesterday’s raid on a News Corporation Australia journalist, and today’s raid on the ABC and three of its journalists, suggest that no media organisation is immune from government attacks on press freedom.

MEAA Media section president Marcus Strom: “A second day of raids by the Australian Federal Police sets a disturbing pattern of assaults on Australian press freedom. This is nothing short of an attack on the public’s right to know.

“Police raiding journalists is becoming normalised and it has to stop.

“These raids are about intimidating journalists and media organisations because of their truth-telling. They are about more than hunting down whistleblowers that reveal what governments are secretly doing in our name, but also preventing the media from shining a light on the actions of government,” he said.

“It is equally clear that the spate of national security laws passed by the Parliament over the past six years have been designed not just to combat terrorism but to persecute and prosecute whistleblowers who seek to expose wrongdoing. These laws seek to muzzle the media and criminalise legitimate journalism. They seek to punish those that tell Australians the truth.

“Yesterday’s raid was in response to a story published a year ago. Today’s raid comes after a story was published nearly two years ago. Suddenly, just days after a federal election, the Federal Police launches this attack on press freedom. It seems that when the truth embarrasses the government, the result is the Federal Police will come knocking at your door,” Strom said.

“MEAA demands to know who is responsible for ordering these coordinated raids, and why now. We call for the Government and Opposition to take collective responsibility for the legal framework they've created that is allowing for what appears to be politically motivated assault on press freedom,” Strom said.

“For years the Liberal and Labor parties have engaged in a high-stakes game of bluff which has seen the introduction of anti-democratic laws in the guise of national security legislation. It is time that the Government and Opposition had a common sense approach to defusing these poisonous laws that are effectively criminalising journalism. This attack on the truth must end.”