Media release: ABC will breach explicit undertakings given to story participants if it complies with WA Police order to hand over all 4 Corners footage

The ABC will breach specific undertakings of anonymity given to people who participated in a Four Corners story about climate protest if it surrenders all footage for the program to WA Police as ordered, breaking a fundamental principle of media ethics - the protection of sources.

WA Police have served the ABC with an order to hand over all footage captured by Four Corners for an investigation set to air on Monday October 9th about the crackdown on peaceful climate protest by the WA government at Woodside’s behest, and it is understood the ABC may comply.

In a stunning development released the same day as the first trailer for the Four Corners story, it is reported that WA’s counter-terror police, the State Security Investigations Group, have issued an Order to Produce all material captured by Four Corners while producing the story.

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.

It is understood that the WA Police order was first issued several weeks ago and that, despite the expiry of the deadline to comply, Four Corners are yet to hand over their footage to WA Police.

However, in an extraordinary move, the ABC may now comply with the WA Police order, surrendering the footage and breaching explicit undertakings and assurances given to sources for the story, several of whom only agreed to participate subject to a guarantee that they would not be identified in any way.

It is understood that the ‘Order to Produce’ under s.50 of the WA Criminal Investigations Act was served on the ABC by the State Security Investigations Group and requests all material related to the Four Corners program.

Disrupt Burrup Hub media advisor Jesse Noakes, who faces trial on November 6 for four counts of Refusing to Obey a Data Access Order served on him by WA Police following multiple  raids on his office and seizures of phones and laptops earlier this year, said:

“Multiple people attended Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign events that were filmed by Four Corners on the explicit proviso that they not be identified or featured on camera in the program. Four Corners has thus far stuck to this commitment, of course, but if the ABC surrenders all its footage to WA authorities they will breach these guarantees and betray sensitive sources, in spite of undertakings.

It is astonishing that the ABC may order their own journalists to break the most fundamental principle of journalism - protect your sources at all costs. At trial next month, I am facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for doing what the ABC apparently won't - refusing to give police access to my sources. If the ABC give in to WA authorities and betray their sources, who will ever trust the ABC with their story again?

“This level of unprecedented overreach from the WA government only serves to illustrate and reinforce the story that Four Corners will tell on Monday night. However, it is imperative that the ABC stick to their guns, back in their reporters and protect the younhg people standing up to tell the most important story of our time: the fight to stop Woodside’s Burrup Hub from destroying our only home, Planet Earth.”

Background:

The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades. Woodside has previously been responsible for the destruction of around 5,000 sacred rock art sites in the construction of earlier parts of its Burrup Hub mega-project, including the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG processing facility.

Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) and fertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine and one of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.

On January 19, Joana Partyka, a ceramic artist and illustrator from Perth, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the colonial masterpiece ‘Down on His Luck’ at the Art Gallery of WA. The protest was subsequently endorsed by most descendants of ‘Down on His Luck’ painter Frederick McCubbin. On February 13, punk musician Trent Rojahn coated the Woodside building with a fire extinguisher full of high-pressure yellow paint and sprayed the slogan ‘Disrupt Burrup Hub’ across the glass at the entrance to Woodside’s corporate headquarters. On Tuesday February 21, graphic designer and mum of two Tahlia Stolarski sprayed the Woodside logo six times in yellow paint on the front doors of WA Parliament.

On April 28, Gerard Mazza and Tahlia Stolarski were charged with Aggravated Burglary attempting to evacuate the Woodside AGM in Perth using harmless stench gas and smoke flares. On May 3, environmental activist Violet CoCo, the first person jailed under repressive new police powers legislation in New South Wales, sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the front of the Perth Police Centre in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia. On May 20, musician and student Emil Davey invaded the pitch of an AFL game during Indigenous Round, sponsored by Woodside, disrupting play for several minutes with a large flag reading Disrupt Burrup Hub. 

On June 1, Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Kristen Morrissey safely evacuated Woodside’s corporate headquarters in Perth using harmless, non-toxic ‘stench gas’ to simulate a hoax gas leak, successfully evacuating several thousand Woodside workers and stopping work for the day. On July 25, Woodside threatened to sue Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners in the Supreme Court of Western Australia for loss of earnings and brand damage after the safe, successful evacuation of Woodside’s corporate headquarters in a hoax gas leak on June 1.