D-Day anniversary highlights freedom hard won is now at risk

This was a week to recall sacrifices made for liberty and democracy, says David Speers

THE Australian Federal Police really could not have chosen a worse week for their overzealous crackdown on the Australian media — a week in which we have remembered the sacrifices made for our democratic freedoms and the sacrifices made by others who’ve sought them.

Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which began the liberation of France from Nazi control. It was a historic victory for freedom. Prime Minister Scott Morrison went all the way to Portsmouth in the UK to join world leaders in acknowledging the moment.

Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Chinese Government ordered the slaughter of an unknown number of pro-democracy protesters in the heart of Beijing. This was a historic defeat for freedom. The Prime Minister said little about this anniversary and was careful not to offend China when he did.

Against the backdrop of these anniversaries, the normally highly respected AFP chose to put at risk one of Australia’s most fundamental democratic freedoms, the freedom of the press, by carrying out two sensational raids on journalists.

On Tuesday a team of AFP officers spent more than seven hours rifling through every drawer and cupboard at the Canberra home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst. They were looking for the source of a story Smethurst wrote 14 months ago, which cited classified documents relating to new powers being considered for the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australians. The Government insisted the story was wrong at the time, but the classified documents were very real.

On Wednesday, another team of AFP officers spent more than eight hours going through the ABC’s database at its Ultimo headquarters in Sydney and downloading more than a hundred files. They were looking for the source of a series of stories broadcast in 2017 known as the Afghan Files by investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark. The stories revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces.

In both cases, these were stories Australians deserved to know about. These were journalists doing their jobs. But these are journalists who could now face jail time.

The heavy-handed raids, particularly the scouring of Annika Smethurst’s own home, clearly intimidate all journalists and their sources. So does the threat of prosecution for both leaking and publishing classified information, even when it is in the public’s interest to do so.

Acting AFP Commissioner Neil Gaughan tried to pretend otherwise at a press conference on Thursday. “I reject the claim over the last few days we’re trying to intimidate journalists or conduct a campaign against the media,” he said. It was a breathtaking denial of reality.

He then went on to confirm at the very same press conference that the journalists could still be charged. “I’m not going to rule in or rule out anyone subject to further

charges.” So the AFP is prepared to spend seven hours rifling through a journalist’s home and threaten them with jail and that’s not intimidation?

The AFP clearly has a duty to investigate security breaches, but it also has to use its discretion. There was no discretion on show this week.

Scott Morrison also showed little immediate concern about how these raids might undermine a central democratic tenet — press freedom.

“It never troubles me that our laws are being upheld,” he said when asked whether police raiding a journalist’s homes bothered him.

By the end of the week, after it was clear this firestorm was not going away, Morrison was declaring his firm support for a free press, sympathising with journalists who had through a “very upsetting and a very anxious and concerning event” and insisting neither he nor his ministers had any idea these raids were going to take place.

The question now is what, if anything, the government will do to strengthen protections for the media and importantly for whistleblowers, to ensure this does not happen again.

An enormous amount of energy is about to go into legislating protections for religious freedom.

Will any of that energy be spent protecting press freedom?

The Morrison Government is still in a post-election honeymoon phase, but this week was a reminder that being in government means being accountable.

The election campaign and its immediate aftermath were largely focused on Labor — Bill Shorten’s high-risk policy agenda and then Anthony Albanese’s ascension to the leadership.

This week, for the first time in a long while, the focus was back on the government as weak economic data and the raids on journalists dominated the news.

Whether it likes it or not, the government is accountable for what happens on its watch.

It is also responsible for safeguarding the freedoms that underpin our democracy.

After all, these are the same freedoms fought for successfully on D-Day and unsuccessfully at Tiananmen Square.