Current Events > Australian journalists and news corporations raided by police

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https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/federal-police-raid-abc-offices-in-sydney -over-a-2017-story-about-afghanistan/news-story/3bb1fbe51571d757ca05bb8da0b763d1

Australias media industry is bracing for more heavy-handed raids by the Federal Police, following the extraordinary searches of the ABC today and a journalists home yesterday.

Several officers remain inside the Sydney headquarters of the public broadcaster, trawling through more than 9200 items in relation to reports published two years ago regarding alleged unlawful killings and misconduct by Special Forces troops in Afghanistan.

It comes just a day after the Canberra home of Annika Smethurst, political editor of News Corp Australias Sunday newspapers, was stormed by seven AFP officers who spent seven hours poking through her personal items, including her underwear drawer.

Claire Harvey, deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, said she was concerned more journalists would be targeted in what was clearly an attempt to intimidate.

All media organisations should be concerned about whos going to be next, Harvey said on ABC News today.

There will be more raids. Thats inevitable. There are plenty of stories I can think of that the government might be targeting next.

https://www.news.com.au/national/afp-whistleblowers-fear-theyre-next-please-delete -everything-i-have/news-story/d77135c7228ffc833577b65b804609e3

Please delete all of our correspondence, a message from an Australian Federal Police officer to news.com.au reads.

Its one of several messages this week sent to our newsroom from AFP whistleblowers who have contacted us to report widespread mental health issues within the organisation and a disturbing internal bullying culture over the past two years.

Many of the almost 100 past and present sworn members who came forward claimed the toxic culture had culminated in four workplace suicides in less than two years and warned that more deaths were inevitable.

But some of those who spoke out are now fearful that they will be identified and reprimanded

under the Australian Federal Police Act. 1979 in the event of another raid on major news organisations. While Australian whistleblowers can apply to be protected under the Corporations Act, the legislation is narrowly drafted and has subsequently come under intense scrutiny.

Were next, one AFP member wrote to news.com.au this week.

Please delete everything I have.

Another said: (George) Orwells 1984 (a dystopian novel about the risks of government overreach, totalitarianism and repressive regimentation) is real, sadly.

I didnt serve and fight for this, the message continued.

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bump
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the liberal government needs to fuck off. seriously. i cant believe they got voted back in after their continual fuckups and hostility over the last 3 years
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Australia is basically a fascist state now
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Rika_Furude posted...

the liberal government needs to fuck off. seriously. i cant believe they got voted back in after their continual fuckups and hostility over the last 3 years

Christ, tell me about it. I was pretty shocked when the results came though, after the trainwreck they've been. They jumped on Labor's dick super hard when Rudd got ousted, but the Liberal Party has stayed in power despite playing goddamn musical chairs for the better half of a decade. The only solace is that Tony Abbott lost his seat, and even that's just a small victory against a much larger tide.

All we can hope for is that Anthony Albanese gains the public's trust and successfully reforms the Labor party into a strong contender once again, and that the country isn't completely and utterly fucked by Peter Dutton and the other cronies by 2022.

Irony posted...

Australia is basically a fascist state now

I mean, that's going a bit far. But we need to stay vigilant and hold our governing bodies responsible when they pull shit like this. Fascist states come about with small changes, followed by bold public actions that test whether the small changes they've been making have molded the public conversation in their favor. This would be a step towards fascism, and it's a step that can be combated by holding the AFP and government responsible.

I shy away from statements like this because it's an extreme thing to say, and that turns most people off when they hear it. I also believe that while things are bad, public awareness and backlash can still stop the cronyism and bullying that's rife in our government.
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Should be executed for pulling this stunt
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I'm not familiar with Australian law or politics, beyond some of their disastrous tech stuff. Is what's happening legal or common? On the surface, this sounds like 3rd world bullshit.

darkmaian23 posted...

I'm not familiar with Australian law or politics, beyond some of their disastrous tech stuff. Is what's happening legal or common? On the surface, this sounds like 3rd world bullshit.

never used to be common a few years ago, just gimmick accounts on gamefaqs would say its common. but stuff like this is actually happening more frequently
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Flintgrandad posted...

Australia also blocked sites that had the New Zealand shooting. I dont remember if they tried to arrest anyone for it or not.

They never did block facebook though, strangely enough
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At least there's a reasonable justification for cracking down on the footage of a massacre. Propagating the footage of someone dying is obscene, and it can be used for trolling. That's not me prattling off some flimsy Government justification, that's common sense - it was public, it exists, it could be archived for public viewing through a specific historical service but that footage contains a lot of evil and stands to do a lot of harm if left out in the open.

Meanwhile, "urr our government secrets" is an excuse being applied to news articles that are like two years old. Two unrelated news articles that benefit the public's interests, raided by the police. Sending a message to potential whistleblowers that their lives will be upended next. That is a dangerous overreach of governmental power, and it's appalling that the police and government are trying to fuck us in the ass over this.

Facebook didn't get banned because it's a wider platform that the shooter used, with billions of global visitors. It was a tool, and they complied with officials in regards to the shooter. Archival sites were targeted because they aimed to keep the video viewable for anyone who wanted to see 50 Muslims get murdered. The propagation of that footage can't be assumed to be in good faith, nor can the footage of human slaughter be considered a freely available resource for anyone to view at their leisure.
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I understand if they target Joe Smith for uploading that video. But they shouldnt target 4chan because Joe Smith posted a link on 4chan.
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Flintgrandad posted...

What about drugs then? The government seems pretty harsh on drug use.

Broken Hill is a meth town now that the opal trade has slowed down. Ice and meth usage is rampant where I live, I was in KFC once and I saw a girl I went to school with - her skin was an unhealthy shade of jaundice, and kind of grey and lifeless. Absolute junkie. I would have been around 19 at the time. I've been drinking at houses where five or six people have just sat around a table smoking ice.

We haven't legalised pot, so folks are occasionally done for that, but there are folks who grow, buy and smoke it who get by without getting in trouble. But there are parts of Australia where ice and meth have exploded into real problems, to the point that police introduced a Mobile Drug Test for drivers to crack down on this behaviour.

What does this have to do with the New Zealand shooting, though? If it's another reach for "personal freedoms" being infringed upon, I can assure you - most Australians don't want a jacked up meth head getting in a car and causing an accident, or going out to drink and punching another person in the back of the head. Things seem better than they used to, but certain parts of Australia have had massive issues with hard drugs this decade and I don't at all oppose the idea of meth use getting cracked down upon.
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