Police Raid ABC Offices Over Stories Alleging Misconduct by Australian Troops

The Australian Federal Police are raiding the ABC offices in Sydney over a series of 2017 stories that revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. Those stories, known as The Afghan Files, were the result of hundreds of pages of secret defence force documents that were leaked to the broadcaster and revealed detailed cases of “possible unlawful killings”, the ABC reported. These included alleged incidents of Australian troops killing unarmed men and children.

The raid on the ABC offices comes less than 24 hours after the AFP raided the home of News Corp political journalist Annika Smethurst, over articles she published in 2018 which exposed secret plans to expand Australia’s domestic surveillance capabilities.

AFP officers entered the ABC offices on Harris Street, Ultimo, just after 11.30 AM—followed shortly afterwards by three police IT technicians. The search warrant named reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, as well as the broadcaster's director of News Gaven Morris. The broadcaster’s lawyers asked AFP officers if the raid had anything to do with the raid on Smethurst’s property, to which they answered no. It’s understood the ABC had some prior notice of the raid, The Guardian reports, although it’s not entirely clear what specific details are being investigated.

Ms Smethurst was at home on Tuesday morning when several AFP officers arrived with a warrant from an ACT magistrate giving them authority to search her home, computer, and mobile phone, News Corp reported. She complied with the warrant but declined to answer any questions apart from confirming her identity. Officers spent almost eight hours at her home.

In a statement, the AFP later confirmed that it “executed a search warrant at a residence in the ACT”—stating that “the matter relates to an investigation into the alleged unauthorised disclosure of national security information that was referred to the AFP.

“Police will allege the unauthorised disclosure of these specific documents undermines Australia’s national security,” it said. “No arrests are expected today as a result of this activity.”

Smethurst’s story, published in April 2018, claimed there were discussions taking place between the Defence and Home Affairs ministries in relation to radical new powers that would allow Australia’s cyber spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, to monitor Australian citizens for the very first time. The emails, text messages, and bank accounts of everyday Australians would be able to be secretly accessed by digital spies under the proposed plan.

The original story also included images of top-secret letters between the secretary of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo, and his counterpart in Defence, Greg Moriarty, outlining a plan to potentially allow government hackers to “proactively disrupt and covertly remove” cyber threats by “hacking into critical infrastructure.”

News Corp Australia has broadly condemned the raids, declaring in a statement that “the Australian public’s right to know information about government laws that could impact their lives is of fundamental importance in our society.

“This raid demonstrates a dangerous act of intimidation towards those committed to telling uncomfortable truths… This will chill public interest reporting.”

Details of the raid on the ABC offices are still pretty thin on the ground, but the AFP have since released a statement saying no arrests were planned today and the warrant was "not linked to a search warrant executed in Canberra yesterday."

That statement also clarified that the search warrant was "in relation to allegations of publishing classified material, contrary to provisions of the Crimes Act 1914".

David Anderson, managing director at the ABC, said it was "highly unusual for the national broadcaster to be raided in this way".

"This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and Defence matters," he said. "The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not condemn the Smethurst raid when asked about the matter during a press conference in London yesterday, saying that “it never troubles me [when] our laws [are] being upheld”. Morrison also claimed he believes in press freedom—although when asked if journalists should be protected from laws that see them raided for reporting on matters of public interest, he said he had “no plans” to make any changes to the legislation.

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