Australian Journalist Won't Be Charged Over Possible War Crimes Report

Australian police said journalist Dan Oakes won't be charged with obtaining classified information, clearing the last of three reporters who wrote about secret surveillance and possible war crimes.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reporter Dan Oakes and his producer Sam Clark were targeted in a raid on the state broadcaster's Sydney headquarters in June of 2019, setting off a storm of protest from media groups.

A day earlier, police had raided the Canberra home of News Corp. journalist Annika Smethurst with warrants to search her house, computer and phone more than a year after she cited “top secret letters” in a newspaper report.

Public Prosecutions chief Stephen Herron's office stated there were “reasonable prospects” of convicting Oakes for using classified documents in a report alleging Australian troops had killed unarmed men and children in Afghanistan.

Clark had been cleared earlier, as was Smethurst, who had critically reported on government surveillance, with pressure growing on Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Australia does not grant press freedom constitutionally, sparking debate on whether the government is overstepping lines in the interest of national security.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson welcomed the police decision on Oakes, but added the “matter should never had gone this far,” The Associated Press said.

“Journalists in this country should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs and legislation needs to be changed to provide proper protection for journalists and their sources when they are acting in the public interest,” he said in a statement.

Oakes described the three years since his report, The Afghan Files, was broadcast as “very difficult,” under constant threat of being prosecuted and jailed for doing his work as a journalist.

“While it's been difficult and it's had an impact on my family, I wouldn’t change the fact that we did these stories and that we tried to draw the public’s attention to them,” Oakes told ABC.

The police raids brought together media rivals criticizing the government for trying to muzzle them, demanding there be no prosecutions of journalists for doing their jobs.

They claim the government was trying to use the cover of national security and anti-terrorism laws, of which more than 70 have been passed since the 09/11 terrorist attacks, to thwart stories.

The real reason for the raids and crackdown on the press, media groups said, was that the government was embarrassed, had planned surveillance of all citizens and didn't want them to know about it.

Still at risk, however, is a key whistleblower, David McBride, a former Australian army lawyer.

He admitted leaking classified documents about the Australian Special Air Service Regiment's involvement in the Afghanistan war to the ABC, for which he faces up to 50 years in jail.