- Binoy Kampmark - Dropped Prosecutions: The Afghan Files, Public Interest Journalism and Dan Oakes Archived Message
Posted by sashimi
on October 16, 2020, 9:09 am
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(quote) In July 2017, two journalists working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, wrote of a stash of incriminating documents, running into hundreds of pages. They were "secret defence force documents leaked to the ABC". These documents gave "an unprecedented insight into the clandestine operations in Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan, including incidents of troops killing unarmed men and children." In exposing these depravities of invasion, adventurism and war, the devotees of secrecy got busy. Bureaucrats chatted; investigations commenced. On June 5, 2019, officers of the Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney offices of the ABC. It was a busy time for the police; Annika Smethurst of News Corp was also the subject of a warrant, having written about discussions about a proposed enlargement of surveillance powers already possessed by the Australian Signals Directorate. Both warrants had been executed pursuant to alleged breaches of official secrecy under the old version of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth). Legal affairs editor of The Australian, Chris Merritt was alarmed enough to write of a less than brave new world. "Welcome to modern Australia - a nation where police raid journalists in order to track down and punish the exposure of leaks inside the federal government". Both warrants were subsequently challenged. The returns for journalism were mixed. In the case of the ABC, they were abominable. In February, the Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham dismissed the effort by the broadcaster to impeach the warrant. She found the warrant validly drafted and sufficiency clear. Justice Abraham also affirmed that the implied constitutional right to communicate on political subjects was not a personal, enforceable one, merely a restraint on state power. "[T]he notion of speech as an affirmative value has no role to play." This formulation of Australian law, miraculously extracted from the worn teeth of the Australian constitution, is designed to render any such rights inoffensive and benign, lest the citizenry get uppity with such ideas as free speech. This state of affairs ought to encourage a move towards a bill or charter of rights, but Australia's politicians will have none of it. Constitutionally enshrined rights would only inhibit the powers of parliament and frustrate the ever abstract sovereign will. Smethurst had better luck in invalidating the search warrant on April 15. But the judges of the High Court found against the police the way a teacher might against an essay from a student prone to poor grammar. The warrant in question failed "to identify any offence under section 79(3)[of the Crimes Act]" and significantly misstated "the nature of an offence arising under it." In short, go back to class and mind your punctuation before searching the homes and workplaces of journalists. The ill-gotten gains of the police - material taken from the Smethurst's home - could still be kept, guaranteeing her a run of sleepless nights. The AFP subsequently confirmed that a brief of evidence had been submitted to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDDP), the result of the July 11, 2017 referral received from the Chief of the Defence Force and then acting-secretary of defence. It recommended that charges be made, though only against Oakes. (/quote) -- Cont'd at https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/10/dropped-prosecutions-the-afghan-files-public-interest-journalism-and-dan-oakes/ |
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