Media Release: ABC decides to hand over Four Corners footage to WA police in basic breach of trust with sources despite assurances and undertakings

Still: ABC Four Corners.

The ABC have decided to surrender Four Corners footage to WA police in a move that betrays their sources from the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign, fundamentally breaching basic media ethics and jeopardising public interest journalism by degrading trust in the ABC.

It comes after ABC Managing Director David Anderson told Senate Estimates on Tuesday that, following the Four Corners episode titled “Escalation” about the Disrupt Burrup Hub protest outside the home of the Woodside CEO, ABC editorial policies have been updated to require “mandatory upward referral” to management when journalists are aware that an offence is about to be committed.

Mr Anderson also told Senate Estimates that he would respond on notice to requests that he table in Parliament all communications between the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign and Four Corners in relation to arrangements for filming that protest, despite no consent having been sought from ABC sources to publish their personal messages.

Mr Anderson has repeatedly stated that the ABC will not reveal their sources, but the ABC has repeatedly declined media and legal queries about how they can guarantee protection of Four Corners’ sources if the ABC complies with the WA police order, or when they intend to do so.

It comes after WA’s counter-terror police, the State Security Investigations Group, issued an Order to Produce all material captured by Four Corners while producing the story about the influence Woodside has over Western Australian politics and the lengths the WA government, police and media will go to in order to protect the interests of Woodside’s Burrup Hub.

The Four Corners story follows the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign leading up to a protest by 19-year-old campaigner Matilda Lane-Rose outside the house of the Woodside CEO, where Ms Lane-Rose was ambushed by more than a dozen counter-terror police lying in wait. Ms Lane-Rose was subsequently charged with Conspiracy to Commit an Indictable Offence along with three co-accused.

Compliance with the WA police order would mean the ABC has breached explicit undertakings given to sources for the Four Corners story, several of whom only agreed to participate subject to a guarantee that they would not be identified and none of whom consented to have any footage provided to WA police.

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. I did not consent at any point to have my footage handed over to WA police. I consented to be filmed for a Four Corners investigation. I never consented to be filmed for a WA Police investigation.”

“As a First Nations justice campaigner with lived experience of incarceration, I am deeply concerned that the ABC may cause the imprisonment of vulnerable people by surrendering source material to 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.”

Disrupt Burrup Hub media advisor Jesse Noakes, who faces trial on November 6 for four counts of Refusing to Obey a Data Access Order Without Reasonable Excuse and will argue he has a “reasonable excuse” to protect his sources, said:

“I personally received undertakings from the ABC in relation to multiple sources who requested and received specific guarantees they would not be identified as a precondition for their participation in events filmed by Four Corners. 

“All of Four Corners access to the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign was the product of numerous conversations over several months in the course of which agreements over access and exposure were continually negotiated. Dozens of people consented to be filmed for a Four Corners investigation. No one ever consented to be filmed for a WA police investigation.”

“Should the ABC surrender any Four Corners footage to WA police, if any of these people face legal liability or criminal prosecution that will be entirely on the ABC - I hope ABC management appreciate the full implications of that.”

“If the ABC release Four Corners footage to WA police, who would ever trust the ABC to tell their story again?”

Barrister Zarah Burgess from Burgess Criminal Lawyers said:

"Under s55(2) of the WA Criminal Investigations Act there is a “reasonable excuse” defence available to the ABC. This is similar to the “reasonable excuse” defence under s61(2) of the same act, which Disrupt Burrup Hub media advisor Jesse Noakes will rely on at trial on November 6 in relation to Failure to Obey four Data Access Orders.” 

“Mr Noakes will argue that he has a defence at law due to his obligation to protect his confidential sources from WA police. The ABC, as a broadcaster of public interest journalism, has that same defence open to them if they choose not to comply with the WA police Order to Produce the Four Corners footage. The penalty for not complying with the order is significantly less than the penalty which Mr Noakes faces, but the strength of their defence is arguably stronger given their position as the public broadcaster.”