Editors in Chief concerned by police raid on ABC

CBC News and our colleagues at Radio-Canada are deeply troubled by the news this week that the Australian Federal Police conducted a high-profile raid in the newsroom at the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. A raid of this nature is highly unusual, and for this reason we felt we needed to express our concerns.

Officers arrived at the ABC headquarters on June 5with a warrant that named two journalists and the News director. They began searching through computer hard drives and the journalists' emails. We at CBC News consider this an attack on basic journalistic freedoms that are part of a democratic system.

The warrant relates to stories published by ABC News a year ago based on hundreds of classified documents.The stories alleged misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. As Canada's public broadcaster, we strongly support the ABC's right, as stated by Managing Director David Anderson, "to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues where there is a clear public interest." The scope of the police warrant is particularly disturbing as it gives the police the power to delete or alter files that itfinds during the raid.

This search warrant was executed a day after another worrying incident where Australian Federal police also raided the home of a journalist from another news agency, News Corp. This journalist had reported that the Australian government was considering ways of monitoring its citizens based on a secret internal memo the journalist had obtained.

Australian police justified both the raids by saying that these journalists were publishing classified material that had the potential to undermine national security.

We at CBC News are very concerned at what we consider to be an attack on journalists doing their jobs reporting on stories of the public interest. We also feel the public at large need to be concerned as well.

CBC News was instrumental in pushing the Federal Government to toughen the laws preserving the confidentiality of journalistic sources. Those laws were amended in 2017.Protecting and defending a free press and its ability to report on institutions and governments without fear of reprisals is a foundational principle and a key to an open society.

Jennifer McGuire, Editor In Chief and General Manager, CBC News
Luce Julien, Directice gnrale, Nouvelles et affaires publiques, Radio-Canada