Journalists in the firing line after AFP changes statement on media raids
The Australian Federal Police has corrected a statement on its raids against media outlets in such a way that opens up the possibility of journalists being prosecuted.
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, the AFP said search warrants executed on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC - which relate to separate matters - were conducted as part of investigations into alleged breaches of Part 6 of the Crimes Act.
The ABC's executive editor John Lyons is followed by an AFP officer during Wednesday's raids.Credit:David Gray
At the time of the respective publications, Part 6 of the act related only to unauthorised disclosure of information by commonwealth officers - public servants - not the journalists and editors involved in publication.
But the ABC had said it was being pursued in relation to alleged breaches of section 79 of the act, which falls under Part 7 and relates to "official secrets".
Under that section, any person who receives or communicates a secret document without permission has committed an indictable offence and faces up to seven years' imprisonment.
The AFP has now changed its statement to say the search warrants against Smethurst and the ABC "related to secrecy offences in Part 6 and 7 of the Crimes Act 1914".
It was not clear exactly when the AFP altered its statement, which appears on the agency's website.
It is the second time in two days the AFP has updated a statement in relation to the media raids. The agency changed its initial statement on the Smethurst search warrant to clarify the search related to "alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret".
Both those sections of the Crimes Act have now been repealed, with the offences becoming part of the Criminal Code, but the AFP is pursuing the alleged breaches under the law as it stood at the time of publication.
AFP acting Commissioner Neil Gaughan did not rule out recommending the prosecution of journalists as a result of the investigation but said police would be mindful of whether that was in the public interest.
"We haven't made a decision one way or the other," he said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Gaughan noted "it is an offence to have that material still on websites". He said there could be more raids in future as part of the ongoing investigations.
Mr Gaughan said he had personally decided on the timing of the raids and the date of the federal election played no role in that decision.
In an interview on Wednesday morning prior to the ABC raids, Attorney-General Christian Porter told the ABC he understood the AFP's investigation in the Smethurst case related to the unauthorised disclosure of information by a government official.
"The investigation is, as I understand it, under the very long-standing provision of the Crimes Act that relates to the official misuse of unauthorised or information, so an unauthorised disclosure of the information by an official to a third party," he said.
"So the investigation, if I can summarise in broad terms, is not about the journalist per se, it's about someone who may or may not have made an unauthorised disclosure against the terms of a very well-known provision of the Crimes Act to a third party."
The ABC's editorial director, Craig McMurtrie, expressed concern on Wednesday afternoon that there was no public interest defence in the section of the Crimes Act under which the ABC was being pursued.
ABC Media Watch presenter Paul Barry said the raids were "a scandal" and that under the law it was "conceivable an ABC journalist could be charged".
The government has said the AFP conducted the raids as part of investigations into alleged breaches of national security laws referred to the AFP by senior public servants.
But on Thursday, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of "letting this happen" and said Mr Morrison did not believe in press freedom.
"They are mincing their words," Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio. "The government is responsible for this. These are government documents. This is government information. The government referred this to the Australian Federal Police."
With Lucy Cormack
Michael Koziol is a political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.