In 2017, the Australian branch of the worldwide news organization ABC published a story that detailed events taken by members of Australian special forces serving in Afghanistan as part of the United States’ long-running War on Terror that was allegedly against the Land Down Under’s codes of military conduct.
The investigative report was known as The Afghan Files, which took two-odd years to make and detailed cases of Australian special forces wrongfully taking the lives of innocent Afghani people, including children.
Earlier today, on Wednesday, June 5, 2019, ABC’s Sydney-based headquarters were raided unexpectedly by undercover, plainclothes-donning officers from the Australian Federal Police. According to ABC’s Managing Director of Australian operations, David Anderson, the Australian federal government rarely targets news and media organizations with unannounced search warrants as a means of investigating crimes. Further, it’s even more unordinary because the report stems back to two full years ago. The incidents that the reports covered are at least four years old.
The search of ABC’s headquarters in Sydney, per the Australian Federal Police, were supported by the provisions set forth by the Crimes Act 1914, Australian federal legislation that allows the federal government and its various agencies and bureaus to intervene in the treatment of any criminal conduct that was being handled on the local or state level prior to the federal government’s butting in.
A picture of the warrant’s contents was posted to Twitter by John Lyons, the Executive Editor of ABC’s Australian operations, which indicated that the Australian Federal Police had legal access to things including emails, personal notes, drafts, passwords, other log in credentials, pictures, video footage, and more. In other words, pretty much everything at the news organization’s headquarters in Sydney was able to be searched through and seized by federal agents.
Scott Morrison, the current Australian Prime Minister who was elected just a few days ago, made publicly clear that he was not involved in the planning or execution of the aforementioned raids. Prime Minister Morrison detailed that the actions taken by the Australian Federal Police were exercised at the policy level, which Morrison doesn’t have control over – in Australia, the prime minister only has jurisdiction over governmental matters.
Dil Bole Oberoi
