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Handing over raw footage from tonight’s Four Corners episode to WA Police would destroy the most fundamental principle of media ethics.
Tonight, the ABC’s Four Corners will air an investigation into the escalating response from Western Australia’s authorities to climate campaigners opposing the biggest fossil fuel project in the country, Woodside’s Burrup Hub. In response, the WA Police Force (and WA Police Minister Paul Papalia) have ordered the ABC to hand over all the footage Four Corners captured while producing the story, as though to prove the point of the program before it’s even aired.
Incredibly, the ABC appears to be entertaining the idea of surrendering the footage to police, despite the objections of their staff, the media union, a host of civil society groups, and the sources for their story — of which I am one, as media adviser for the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign. The ABC’s managing director David Anderson has said the broadcaster never has and never will reveal sources, but has not explicitly ruled out handing the vision to the police.
Read more about the media’s responsibility to protect sources and sensitive material.
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About the Author
Jesse Noakes
Contributor
Jesse Noakes is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner from Western Australia. He has written for Guardian Australia, the ABC, The Saturday Paper, Crikey and elsewhere.
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