ABC chairwoman condemns Australian police raid

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE (AA) - The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) chairwoman on Friday condemned a recent police raid at its headquarters in Sydney over a series of stories it carried in 2017.

“I will fight any attempts to muzzle the national broadcaster or interfere with its obligations to the Australian public,” Ita Buttrose said.

The stories dubbed as Afghan Files accused Australian special troops of civilian killings in Afghanistan.

Buttrose underlined that she has registered with the Federal Government her grave concern over the raid.

“An untrammeled media is important to the public discourse and to democracy,” Buttrose said.

“The raid, in its very public form and in the sweeping nature of the information sought, was clearly designed to intimidate,” Buttrose said in a conversation with Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher.

“The ABC Act and Charter are explicit about the importance of an independent public broadcaster to Australian culture and democracy,” Buttrose added.

Police are searching for article drafts, graphics, digital notes, visuals, raw television footage and all versions of scripts related to the stories.

* Writing by Zehra Nur Duz