{"id":282454,"date":"2023-10-08T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T12:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282454"},"modified":"2023-10-08T14:53:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T12:53:19","slug":"abc-rejects-police-request-for-climate-protest-crime-scene-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282454","title":{"rendered":"ABC Rejects Police Request for Climate Protest Crime Scene Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Personally , I\u2019ve now reached a point where I believe breaking the law for the climate is the ethically responsible thing to do.\u201d (- Chris Packham, UK Wildlife TV presenter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 if the [Aussie] ABC provided footage to the police it would breach Four Corners<\/em> journalists\u2019 commitment to keep some activists\u2019 identities anonymous. \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

ABC facing internal pressure to withhold Four Corners\u2019 Woodside material<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hamish Hastie<\/a><\/strong> and Calum Jaspan<\/a><\/strong>
October 6, 2023 \u2014 3.56pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ABC is facing internal pressure to defy an order from WA Police to hand over footage filmed for a Four Corners<\/em> investigation into climate protesting and police tactics, due to air on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff on the public broadcaster\u2019s media union house committee met on Friday to demand their bosses withhold the footage, warning to hand it over would damage the organisation\u2019s reputation as a producer of public interest journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A promotional video released this week for the episode, \u201cEscalation: Climate, protest and the fight for the future\u201d, features footage of Disrupt Burrup Hub activists being arrested outside Woodside chief executive Meg O\u2019Neill\u2019s Perth home<\/a> during an attempted protest in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under powers prescribed in the state\u2019s Criminal Investigations Act<\/em>, WA Police regularly send \u201corders to produce\u201d to media outlets, including for footage of crime scenes captured by news cameras or CCTV and mobile phone footage obtained by journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disrupt Burrup Hub media advisor Jesse Noakes<\/a>, who was also arrested outside O\u2019Neill\u2019s house for his alleged role in the protest, said that if the ABC provided footage to the police it would breach Four Corners<\/em> journalists\u2019 commitment to keep some activists\u2019 identities anonymous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WA Police Minister Paul Papalia said he was comfortable with police actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Four Corners<\/em> knew about these events in advance it\u2019s actually really irresponsible and pretty disgraceful behaviour that they didn\u2019t notify the police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more: https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/business\/companies\/abc-facing-internal-pressure-to-withhold-four-corners-material-20231006-p5eabl.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A trailer for the video at the center of this controversy is\u00a0available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2023-10-05\/escalation:-climate,-protest-and-the-fight-for-the\/102936960?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protestors didn\u2019t get a chance to do much protesting \u2013 the police somehow knew about the attack on the Woodside Oil CEO\u2019s house, no thanks to the ABC. Police stormed out of the residence and arrested the protestors after they allegedly illegally trespassed on Meg O\u2019Neill\u2019s property<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big question in my mind though, does press freedom extend to having advance knowledge of an upcoming criminal attack on someone\u2019s home, and not informing the police?<\/strong> Or to withholding video evidence of the incident when police demand access?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s accept for a moment the ABC possibly wasn\u2019t aware an alleged crime was about to be committed \u2013 maybe the \u201csource\u201d only informed them there was going to be a protest. Does protecting sources still apply, after people get arrested?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be easy to say A CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED<\/strong> at this point, but lets turn the situation on its head. Imagine the protestors were a group we sympathise with, rather than a vile bunch of hypocritical greenshirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say a citizen journalist captured footage of vaccine freedom protestors clashing with police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most media sources have accepted the official narrative that at lockdown protests in Melbourne, during which police opened fire at protestors with rubber bullets, the lockdown protestors were the aggressors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one witness who makes me seriously question this version of events is former Victoria Police sergeant Krystle Mitchell. She claims she could no longer stand to wear her police uniform, after police opened fire with rubber bullets at protestors assembled around the Melbourne shrine of remembrance.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official version of events, that protestors were the aggressors, that they came armed and prepared for battle. This would be the legal basis for any official demand for protest footage. But given Krystle\u2019s vehement denial that protestors instigated the aggression, I have my doubts about the truth of the official narrative \u2013 which raises the possibility that the seized footage could be used to persecute innocent people who have been entrapped, provoked into responding by deliberate police brutality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly the January 6th protest \u2013 look at all the conflicting narratives that event has spawned, and consider how some of those narratives might be abused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone attacked my home, as Meg O\u2019Neill\u2019s home was allegedly attacked, I\u2019d want every effort to be made to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. But would it be right to force journalists to hand over footage which they obtained with a promise they would never reveal their sources? Aside from the obvious criticism, that such footage should never have been filmed if it was so sensitive, how can laws be framed which allow police to obtain the evidence they need to identify and prosecute criminals, yet at the same time which maintain protections for journalistic freedom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final question,\u00a0where did the police obtain their high quality tipoff?<\/strong>\u00a0Have the police already seen the privileged video, and now just need official access, so they can use it as evidence? If the police have an informant inside the ABC, or if the police are just covering for their friends in the ABC,\u00a0making a big show of conflict with the press to conceal that the ABC gave them a friendly tipoff<\/strong>\u00a0to let them know what was happening, that is a whole new can of worms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Watts Up With That? Essay by Eric Worrall \u201c\u2026 if the [Aussie] ABC provided footage to the police it would breach Four Corners journalists\u2019 commitment to keep some activists\u2019 identities anonymous. \u2026\u201d ABC facing internal pressure to withhold Four Corners\u2019 Woodside material By Hamish Hastie and Calum JaspanOctober 6, 2023 \u2014 3.56pm The ABC is facing internal pressure to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":282457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"ABC facing internal pressure to withhold Four Corners\u2019 Woodside material","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691823099,691822190,691823436,691823435,691823437],"class_list":{"0":"post-282454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-climate-protest","10":"tag-climate-protesting","11":"tag-crime-scene-video","12":"tag-four-corners","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Screenshot-2023-10-08-144700.png?fit=1111%2C553&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1btI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":233267,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=233267","url_meta":{"origin":282454,"position":0},"title":"ABC: \u201cRamp Down\u201d Fossil Fuel Production Instead of Jailing Protestors","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/12\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Aussie federal government owned ABC thinks climate extremists are just trying to show us the disruption climate chaos will\u00a0bring.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0eco-socialism-ideology-politics-movement-green-socialist-left-vector-illustration-154963589.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0eco-socialism-ideology-politics-movement-green-socialist-left-vector-illustration-154963589.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0eco-socialism-ideology-politics-movement-green-socialist-left-vector-illustration-154963589.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0eco-socialism-ideology-politics-movement-green-socialist-left-vector-illustration-154963589.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/0eco-socialism-ideology-politics-movement-green-socialist-left-vector-illustration-154963589.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":266482,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266482","url_meta":{"origin":282454,"position":1},"title":"Greta Thunberg \u201cCould Face Six Months in Prison\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been charged with disobeying police in Sweden last month\u00a0during a port blockade and may face six months in prison. 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