Australia’s Media Raids and the Decline of Press Freedom Worldwide
"Media bosses unite to demand law changes after police raids on ABC, News Corp journalists"
ABC editorial director Craig McMurtrie speaks to the media after the police raid on June 5. (Getty Images)
American journalists have strong constitutional protections, but even the U.S. is part of a global trend among autocracies and democracies alike.
By Matt Ford June 6, 2019
Americans with insomnia and a Twitter account may have seen a disturbing sight on Tuesday night. Half a world away, the Australian Federal Police, the country’s equivalent of the FBI, raided the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the country’s equivalent of the BBC. John Lyons, the executive editor of ABC, published a blow-by-blow account on Twitter as AFP agents
John Lyons @TheLyonsDen
Thousands of internal ABC emails being gone through by the AFP. 637 3:21 PM - Jun 5, 2019 Twitter
It’s not unusual for journalists to face such treatment in more authoritarian countries, which makes it especially disturbing to see them subjected to it in a free nation like Australia. It shows that even liberal-democratic governments will use their power to suppress legitimate journalism, a lesson that America is learning in more subtle ways.
It troubles Sarah Repucci, who studies democracy and human rights at Freedom House. “I think that any raid on a journalist’s office is an attack on the ability of the journalist to get independent information out to the population,” she said. She framed the raids in the context of a broader global rollback on press freedom, one that’s gathered strength with the proliferation of right-wing populism in recent years, as Freedom House detailed in a report .. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-media/freedom-media-2019 .. published on Wednesday (with the ominous title, “A Downward Spiral”).
Quasi-authoritarian populist figures like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have used less overt tactics to undermine independent media outlets than outright dictators, albeit to the same effect. “We’ve been seeing press freedom decline over the last decade, so this isn’t new,” Repucci said. “What is new and a serious concern is that we’re seeing more and more democracies pushing down on press freedoms at home, and if democracies aren’t upholding press freedoms, then we can’t expect dictators to do so either.”
Australian government officials, including Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, claimed .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/05/peter-dutton-denies-prior-knowledge-of-afp-raids-on-abc-and-news-corp .. on Wednesday that they did not know about the raids in advance. Dutton nonetheless praised law-enforcement officials for carrying them out and downplayed the threat to press freedom that they represented. “The AFP have an important job to undertake and it is entirely appropriate they conduct their investigations independently and, in fact, it is their statutory obligation,” he told reporters.
Americans can take some comfort that the First Amendment provides robust legal protections for press freedom; Australia does not even have a Bill of Rights. While Trump has often railed .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/business/media/trump-libel-laws.html .. against the strength of U.S. libel laws and threatened to rework them, those laws are written at the state level and not by a Congress he could bully and intimidate. And the Supreme Court’s ruling in 1964’s New York Times Co. v. Sullivan .. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39 , in which the justices ruled unanimously the newspaper’s favor and established the “actual malice” standard for libel law, would almost certainly forestall his efforts to water down libel laws if he had the opportunity. (Justice Clarence Thomas recently criticized .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/us/politics/clarence-thomas-first-amendment-libel.html .. that decision, though none of the other justices joined him.)
Assange is hardly a sympathetic figure. Swedish prosecutors want to extradite the Australian-born anti-secrecy activist to face sexual-assault charges in that country. He also played a role in Moscow’s campaign to subvert the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But the legal case against him would criminalize routine methods .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/05/27/how-indictment-julian-assange-could-criminalize-investigative-journalism/ .. used by investigative and national-security reporters. Assange’s prosecution and Trump’s rhetoric may not be as dramatic as a phalanx of FBI agents storming into The Washington Post’s newsroom or CNN’s studios. But they could be almost as deleterious to American press freedoms in the long run.
That, in turn, undermines people’s ability to learn about their government and influence it. “It’s important to keep in mind that threats to press freedom are bad in and of themselves, but they’re especially bad because they’re so dangerous to democracy,” Repucci told me. “I think we take our democracy for granted here, and we can’t do that. Democracies have to be nurtured or supported if they’re going to continue. If we value our freedom, we have to stand up for it.”
One example of ugly, vicious, dangerous racism in the Australian military.
ABC Investigations / By Dan Oakes and Jeremy Story Carter
Posted Yesterday at 4:57am, updated Yesterday at 11:24am
A post on the State Sanctioned Violence Instagram account calling to 'Make Diggers Violent Again.'(Supplied)
Current and former Australian special forces soldiers are operating an Instagram account mocking allegations of war crimes allegedly committed by their comrades in Afghanistan.
Key points:
* An Instagram account linked to Australian special forces soldiers makes light of war crime allegations
* The account features a series of graphic and troubling posts, including videos of combat killings set to rap music
* Tension between special forces soldiers and the upper echelons of Defence is laid bare across a number of posts
The public Instagram account, titled State Sanctioned Violence, is also selling merchandise, including bumper stickers reading "Make Diggers Violent Again" and "Taliban Tears", and T-shirts with "High Velocity Atrocities" emblazoned on them.
The account, which has amassed thousands of followers, is littered with crude memes and jokes that make light of killings that occurred during combat.
The ABC has been told that the account is operated mainly by one former and one serving special forces soldier. Those men have not responded to questions from ABC Investigations. Other content, such as photographs, is supplied by former and serving special forces.
The account states it is operated by: "A group of current & former Aussie Soldiers keeping the legacy of the boys we lost alive."
A crude post on the State Sanctioned Violence Instagram account(Supplied)
One video, which includes a mock advisory warning normally used on ABC broadcasts, features a mash-up of aerial footage of people being killed by missiles, gun fire and drone strikes, while rap music plays in the background.
Another photo features text reading: "I've got two command priorities this year: proxy wars and smashing whores."
Australia revokes Chinese scholar visas and targets media officials, prompting furious China response
"Media bosses unite to demand law changes after police raids on ABC, News Corp journalists "Why the raids on Australian media present a clear threat to democracy" "
By Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Echo Hui
Posted Yesterday at 3:41pm, updated Yesterday at 8:56pm
Chinese scholars Li Jianjun (top left) and Chen Hong (top right) and media officials Li Dayong (bottom left) and Tao Shelan (bottom right).(Supplied)
Senior Chinese media officials in Australia have been targeted and the visas of two leading Chinese scholars have been revoked in an unprecedented foreign interference investigation into a NSW political staffer, provoking a furious response from the Chinese Government.
Key points:
* The Australia-China diplomatic crisis has escalated, with two Chinese scholars having their visas revoked
* Chinese media officials have been targeted as part of an ASIO-AFP investigation into allegations of foreign interference by a former NSW backbencher staffer
* Australian journalists were this week pulled out of China following a tense diplomatic stand-off
The Chinese Government has sensationally used state media to accuse Australian authorities of secretly raiding the homes of four Chinese journalists in Australia in late June, after receiving questions from the ABC yesterday about the investigation.
The Chinese embassy did not reply to the ABC's questions yesterday, but several state media organisations published articles overnight reporting details of the alleged raids and accusing Australia of "severely infring[ing] on the legitimate rights of Chinese journalists" and "hypocrisy in upholding so-called 'freedom of the press'".
The ABC has uncovered the identities of senior Chinese journalists and academics who have been drawn into the joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
They include: the Australia bureau chief of China News Service, Tao Shelan; China Radio International's Sydney bureau chief Li Dayong; prominent Chinese scholar and media commentator Professor Chen Hong; and another leading Australian studies scholar, Li Jianjun
A dinner in 2018 included John Zhang (back row, third-left), Li Dayong (back row, centre), Li Jianjun (back row, far right), Tao Shelan (front row, right) and Shaoquett Moselmane (front row, centre).(Supplied)
The AFP is investigating whether Mr Zhang used a chat group on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat, to encourage Mr Moselmane to advocate for the Chinese Government's interests.
The journalists and academics have been drawn into the investigation over the alleged infiltration because they were members of the WeChat group.
Mr Zhang categorically denies the AFP's allegations and is challenging the investigation in the High Court.
According to documents filed by Mr Zhang in the High Court, the AFP alleges he and others "concealed or failed to disclose to Mr Moselmane that they were acting on behalf of or in collaboration with Chinese State and Party apparatus".
The Australian Financial Review's Michael Smith (left) and the ABC's Bill Birtles flew out of Shanghai on Monday night. (Supplied)
The investigation has stoked an escalating diplomatic crisis between China and Australia, which has seen ABC correspondent Bill Birtles and Australian Financial Review journalist Michael Smith evacuated from China this week .. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-08/bill-birtles-mike-smith-evacuated-china-safety-concerns/12638786 .. and a third Australian, TV news anchor Cheng Lei, detained last month and accused of endangering national security.
The AFP-ASIO investigation became public in late June, when the task force raided NSW Parliament and searched the homes and offices of Mr Moselmane and Mr Zhang, seizing their devices and communications.
China says Australian homes of media were raided
Federal agents leave Shaoquett Moselmane's home in Sydney on June 26.(AAP: Bianca De Marchi)
The Chinese journalists in Australia and their media organisations did not respond to questions sent by the ABC, however, China News Service last night reported that the homes of four journalists were searched on the day the other raids began.
"At dawn of June 26 this year, Australian law enforcement officers conducted an unprovoked search on the residences of four journalists from three Chinese media organisations in Australia on the grounds of alleged violations of Australia's Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act," China News Service reported.
"Items such as mobile phones, computers and writing materials were seized.
"In the end, the Australian investigation results proved that the Chinese journalists did not engage in activities incompatible with their identities."
The embassy has since provided a statement to the ABC, saying it has "provided consular support to Chinese journalists in Australia and made representations with relevant Australian authorities to safeguard legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens".
The AFP and ASIO have declined to comment on the investigations.
The China News Service is fully owned and overseen by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China's State Council, which was merged into the Chinese Communist Party's foreign influence agency, the United Front Work Department, in 2018.
Chinese scholars have visas revoked
In June 2018, Professor Chen interviewed Mr Moselmane in a filmed talk at the East China Normal University. Professor Chen criticised efforts by the Australian Government to criminalise foreign interference. (Supplied: East China Normal University)
The ABC has also learned that the two Chinese scholars who were members of the WeChat group, Professor Chen and Mr Li, recently received letters from the Home Affairs Department, advising their Australian visas were being cancelled due to advice from ASIO of alleged risks to national security.
Professor Chen is a regular visitor to Australia and commentator on Australian relations, featuring regularly in Australian media and writing in the Chinese state media tabloid, the Global Times.
He declined the ABC's request for an interview but sent a statement, writing: "I was shocked to receive an email notifying me of visa cancellation on security grounds."
- "I absolutely refuse to accept this assessment, and believe a gross mistake has been made regarding my relationship with Australia," he wrote. -
Professor Chen told the ABC the WeChat group, nicknamed 'FD group' or 'Fair Dinkum group', was innocuous.
"The group was a most ordinary social network platform on which members used to share jokes and funny memes, photos of personal excursions, fishing trips or drinks, and repost newspaper articles," he wrote.
"The allegation that the group had been purported as a means of influence is simply preposterous.
"Everything about the group is open to scrutiny.
"The Australian authorities must have access to the content of the group. It is plain to any eye that nothing in the conversations and postings in that group has the remotest complicity of anything suspicious."
Shaoquett Moselmane with Professor Chen at the Australian Studies Centre in the East China Normal University in 2016.(Supplied)
He said his friendship with Mr Moselmane and Mr Zhang was "entirely aboveboard".
Professor Chen has attended events with former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr, and was once the translator for former prime minister Bob Hawke on his 1994 trip to China.
Professor Chen and Mr Li have built their careers in China with the help of grants from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and private companies, as part of its Australian Studies in China soft power program.
Both Professor Chen and Mr Li run Australian studies centres at Shanghai's East China Normal University and the Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Mr Li has been doing a PhD at Western Sydney University, funded by a $60,000 Australia China Scholarship from BHP Billiton as part of the program, however his student visa was also recently revoked.
Zhang maintains innocence
Shaoquett Moselmane and John Zhang at a street festival.(Facebook)
Mr Zhang is challenging the investigation in the High Court, arguing Australia's new foreign interference legislation is unconstitutional because it breaches the implied freedom of political communication.
He is also seeking to quash the warrants relied on by the AFP to search his home, office and NSW Parliament House.
His application to the High Court, filed last month, states that the AFP search warrants accuse Mr Zhang and others, who are not named, of "acting on behalf of the 'Chinese State and Party apparatus' in a 'private social media chat group and other fora' with Mr Moselmane".
The documents say the warrants allege Mr Zhang and others "advanced the interests and policy goals of a foreign principle, being the Chinese Government, in Australia by providing support and encouragement to Mr Moselmane for the advocacy of 'Chinese state interests'".
According to the document, they are alleged to have "concealed from or failed to disclose to Mr Moselmane that they were acting on behalf of or in collaboration with Chinese State and Party apparatus including the Ministry of State Security and the United Front Work Department".
The documents also say the AFP alleges that the group was "reckless … that the conduct would influence the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party's policy positions and the views of members of the NSW electorate on China, and that part of the conduct was covert, in that it involved communications over a private social media chat group".
Labor backbencher Shaoquett Moselmane has rejected suggestions he would be the target of a foreign influence campaign.(ABC News: Jerry Rickard)
He rejected any suggestion he would be the target of a foreign influence campaign.
When asked whether he discussed his speeches or parliamentary work over the chat, Mr Moselmane said: "Not necessarily … I mean, sometimes we share articles, or we share speech or share comment. We share jokes. This is a common human thing."
The ABC has contacted the Department of Home Affairs, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for comment.
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