Wednesday, June 05, 2019



No press freedom in Australia II

Yesterday the Australian government raided a journalist for revealing its plans to spy on Australian citizens. Today, they're raiding the ABC for revealing that war crimes were committed by Australian soldiers:

Australian Federal Police officers are raiding the ABC's Sydney headquarters over a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files.

The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

The search warrant names Oakes, Clark and ABC's director of News Gaven Morris.


The message is clear: the Australian government regards revealing its crimes and planned crimes as a crime. And again, that's not the sort of behaviour usually seen in a democracy. Tyrannies raid journalists, not democracies.