Australian police raid home of journalist investigating government surveillance - Sensationalist Headlines

Federal police raid home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurs.. The Australian federal police have raided the home of News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst investigating the publication of a leaked plan to allow government spying on Australians. On Tuesday police executed a warrant investigating the “alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret” which they said had the potential to undermine Australia’s national security. The warrant from an ACT magistrate gave police authority to search the home, computer and mobile phone of the News Corp Sunday titles’ political editor. The raid prompted outrage from News Corp Australia, which labelled it a “dangerous act of intimidation” targeted at public interest reporting. In April 2018 Smethurst reported that the heads of the defence and home affairs ministries had discussed draconian new powers to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time. Under the mooted plan, spies would be allowed to secretly access emails, bank accounts and text messages with approval from the defence and home affairs ministers. Didn't know it was possible to raid someones house and not arrest anyone.

Thanks to the world's non-actions of Assange's unlawful and insightful arrest, expect more bold moves on journalists.

There is something sadly ironic about releasing a plan that allowed the gov't to spy on its own citizens, only to then get raided in such a authoritative way.

Australia's slow descent into fascism continues. They just raided the ABC too.

Fortunately ABC don't give a shit: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/58083/75f3be6e-1890-4e62-96ee-6e501b0e89ee/image.png Sadly I can see their budget getting cut down more as a result .

we're so fucked news-wise if the ABC ever goes under tbh everything else is murdoch-dominated or fairfax-owned

Australia? Shameful. I expected better of them.

oh are we pretending assange has his hands clear of international espionage now

Receiving info =/ espionage

Whatever you or I think personally about the man, he is the proverbial canary in the coalmine when it comes to whistleblowing and journalistic freedom and it's likely that if he is sentenced it will set a precedent for governments dealing with whistleblowers in the future.

https://i.redd.it/5prs4m2a6ms21.jpg

grooming sources to steal info = espionage

Lol so journalist getting information from whistleblowers of the wrong doings and illegal actions of our government is consider "stealing info"? Guys turn off the news, you're stealing information!

that's not what assange did. He recruited sources inside the government, told them what to look for, provided software to hack computers, then recieved the information. A whistleblower is the exact opposite, the source seeks out the journalist.

Wheres the evidence of this other then the corrupt government saying this? I take it with a huge grain of salt and even if it's legit who the fuck cares. I care more about the huge war crimes the US has been sweating under the rug and I say the actions are not only unwarranted but heroic. Also Obama did fuckall to protect whistleblowers. Remember manning? Snowden? It's not just a alt right thing. But its definitely been much worse and bold now than before

I really do doubt that anyone in Cabinet had any say about these raids. Australia’s federal bureaucracy is distinctly independent, compared to bureaucracies in every other country. Most federal departments make a big deal out of decisions being at ‘arms length’ away from Ministers. Even if it was authorised by someone in Cabinet, even a moron could tell that it would look disastrous for the sitting government - and could make it harder for the government to negotiate with the crossbench. As for the timing of the raids: they probably didn’t wish to perform them any earlier, given that Australia was about to have a federal election, and that such raids (even without Ministerial oversight) during campaigning season would be politically advantageous for some parties and disadvantageous for others. That’s not to excuse what’s happened. There’s a line, and the AFP quite clearly crossed it.