Govt rejects call to drop journo probe

An Australian government minister yesterday rejected a national broadcaster’s demand that police drop an investigation of two journalists who reported classified information.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who is responsible for the Australian Federal Police, said he would not intervene in the investigation of Australian Broadcasting Corp investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark.

“Nobody is above the law and the police have a job to do under the law,” Dutton told Nine Network television. “It’s up to the police to investigate, to do it independently and make a decision whether or not they prosecute.” But ABC managing director David Anderson revealed on Thursday that he had written to Dutton calling for police to drop their investigation of the reporters that led to a raid on the state-funded broadcaster’s Sydney headquarters in early June.

The ABC had asked that “any action against the pair cease. Failing that, that the ABC be briefed on when and how the AFP action will be resolved”, Anderson said.

The police raid sought documents relating to the Australian Special Air Service Regiment’s involvement in Afghanistan.

Oakes and Clark reported in 2017 that Australian troops had killed unarmed men and children in Afghanistan in potential war crimes.

A day earlier, police raided the Canberra home of News Corp Australia’s political editor Annika Smethurst hunting for unrelated leaked government documents that formed the basis of an article she wrote more than a year ago. The article, dismissed by Dutton as “nonsense”, said Defence Department and Home Affairs Department bosses had canvassed giving a security agency legal powers to spy on Australians.