Media release: ‘Massive violation’: Three people arrested and charged with Conspiracy after ABC release Four Corners footage to WA Police

Nicholas Doyle is arrested.

Three more people have been charged with Conspiracy to Commit an Indictable Offence in relation to a protest in August outside the home of Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill after the ABC surrendered dozens of hours of Four Corners footage to WA Police earlier this month.

Nicholas Doyle, Tahlia Stolarski and Joana Partyka were all arrested and charged by WA Police on Wednesday morning and released on bail to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday 29 November.

The news comes as Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill is expected to appear in a Perth Court this morning to be cross-examined after taking out interim Violence Restraining Orders ex parte against four Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners, who immediately challenged them.

The ABC have surrendered their sources to WA authorities despite increasing pressure from their sources, from the MEAA media union, and from many ABC staff not to comply with the order.

WA Police served the ABC with an order to hand over all footage captured by Four Corners for an investigation into the crackdown on peaceful climate protest by the WA government at Woodside’s behest.

The Four Corners story followed 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 on August 1, with three others now being charged as a direct result of the ABC surrendering their sources to police.

Nicholas Doyle, the partner of Matilda Lane-Rose who was ambushed by a dozen counter terror police outside the Woodside CEO’s house on August 1, said:

“I was woken up by police banging on the door of my girlfriend’s house and was then arrested and charged with Conspiracy. I agreed to appear as a source for the ABC’s Four Corners program and I feel completely betrayed by the ABC. This is exactly what we feared would happen if the ABC surrendered their sources to police, and now it has. It is truly alarming that the state broadcaster would capitulate to the same police state they have been documenting in such detail.”

Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner and mother of two Tahlia Stolarski said:

“While I was being detained in handcuffs by WA police I asked them why I had been arrested now and whether it was due to the ABC’s release of the Four Corners footage to counter-terror police. They confirmed to me that it was. I am furious with the ABC and with WA police for both caving in to the WA government’s demands that they act only in the interests of Woodside’s Burrup Hub.”

“On August 1, a 19-year-old woman with some paint turned up on a street in City Beach. Almost four months later, detectives from WA’s counter-terrorism unit managed to force our state broadcaster to do something no journalist should ever have to do - handover confidential footage without the consent of those in front of the camera, myself being one of them, for the sake of some graffiti that never happened. It is a chilling illustration of the lengths the WA government will go to control people’s freedom in order to protect Woodside’s Burrup Hub.”

Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Joana Partyka, who last week was convicted of two counts of refusing to obey a data access order, said:

“The ABC’s decision to bow to WA Police’s undemocratic order to produce unaired Four Corners footage is a staggering breach of trust and basic journalism ethics. I consented to being filmed in service of exposing Woodside’s disproportionate influence on the WA authorities – not to assist the authorities to prosecute Woodside’s climate-destroying political agenda. The ABC was fully aware that their acquiescence to the police on this matter would likely result in further crackdowns against non-violent climate campaigners. How ironic that they’ve become a sad symbol of the very influence they sought to expose.”