“I do not consent”: Media statement re WA Police / ABC Four Corners “exit plan” from Deaths in Custody Watch Committee Deputy Chair Desmond Blurton

Wednesday 11 October 7am AWST - Perth

A statement late yesterday from WA Police announced they may offer the ABC an “exit plan” by “reducing the scope” of the Order to Produce that demands the ABC surrender all footage captured in production of the Four Corners investigation “Escalation: Climate, Protest and the Fight for the Future”.

In response Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton, a Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner and Deputy Chair of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, said this morning:

“I am a campaigner with Disrupt Burrup Hub as well as leading campaigns on other issues that affect my First Nations people such as deaths in custody, homelessness and protection of our sacred tribal lands. I was filmed by Four Corners on multiple days as part of the program they produced about police repression of climate protest in WA. Although I did not receive a specific undertaking to remain anonymous, I did not consent at any point to have my footage handed over to WA police.

“Given that I work on a number of other social issues affecting my First Nations community with other campaigners involved with Disrupt Burrup Hub, it is quite possible that confidential discussions that have no relevance to the Four Corners story were still captured by the ABC. I do not consent to WA police being given any of this footage, and if the ABC hand over any footage it will be a deep betrayal of people who trusted the ABC to give them a voice.”