By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_ Australian police decided yesterday (Oct 15), to drop investigations on Daniel Oakes, the journalist who exposed alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan. According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), even though there were reasonable prospects of convicting Oakes, prosecutors determined that proceeding with criminal charges would not be of public interest.
Three years ago, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist published documents known as “Afghan files”, which allege that Australian troops killed unarmed men and children in Afghanistan. Subsequently, the police launched investigations on Oakes and his producer, Sam Clark, for obtaining classified information from a government whistle-blower. Subsequently, search warrants were issued on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters on 5th June last year.
Even though ABC’s Managing Director, David Anderson, acknowledged the police decision to drop investigations, he also shared his disappointment regarding the matter having gone too far. “Journalists in this country should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs, and legislation needs to be changed to provide proper protection for journalists and their sources, when they are acting in the public interest,” Anderson said.
Many parties have accused Australian authorities for using national security as an excuse to threaten journalists who expose matters that are not in favour of the government. Oakes was not the only journalist charged by the AFP for revealing classified information.
In June last year, warrants were also issued to search the house, computer and phone belonging to News Corp. journalist, Annika Smethurst, who had cited “top secret letters” in a newspaper report, the previous year. However, in May this year, a court ruled the warrant used to raid the journalist’s home was invalid, and the case against Smethurst was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
“No journalist should have to endure what Daniel Oakes went through for more than two years,” Marcus Strom, President of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, according an internal Defence bulletin sent last week, the Australian Defence Force has placed an embargo on the shredding any records regarding Australia’s two-decade-long war in Afghanistan. More than four years ago, an inquiry was launched by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF), into the alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, by Australian Special Forces, including the murder of civilians.
The bulletin states that the embargo was issued at the direction of the Afghanistan Inquiry Task Force, a small temporary team established to prepare Defence Forces to receive and respond to the IGADF Afghanistan Inquiry report.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
