“Australian police have raided the offices of the national broadcaster over allegations it published classified material about possible war crimes in Afghanistan.”
“Federal officers spent nine hours searching through documents and emails at The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) headquarters in Sydney on Wednesday, according to the news agency.”
“The raid was the second to target the media in two days, following searches of the home of a News Corp editor on Tuesday, and prompted complaints of an assault on press freedom.”
““This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and defence matters,” ABC Managing Director David Anderson said”.
“ABC investigations editor, John Lyons, tweeted a photo of the search warrant which showed the targets included two ABC journalists, the organisation’s news director and a former Australian military lawyer, David William McBride.”
“Home affairs minister Peter Dutton, who almost lost his seat in the general election last month, denied involvement in the police investigations and said he was only notified afterwards.”
“The Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed they had not notified Mr Dutton in advance“.
Read more: Police raid Australian public broadcaster over leaked Afghanistan war crimes documents
2021-week15
