Court ruling against ABC highlights the enormous deficiency in laws protecting journalists’ sources
In this crossposting from The Conversation, Denis Muller explains why this week’s Federal Court ruling against the ABC shows why journalism is still being criminalised.
The federal court’s rejection of the ABC case against the Australian Federal Police raid on its Sydney headquarters in June 2019 reveals two issues of great importance to freedom of the press in Australia:
- the laws criminalising journalism are working exactly as the government intended, and
- the legal protections for journalists’ confidential sources are seriously deficient.
The ABC challenged the validity of the search warrant under which the raid took place. By the time the raid was over, the police had downloaded 89 documents onto two USB sticks. They have been sealed pending the outcome of this case.
