Police have raided the Sydney headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), in the second day of searches.
Officers arrived at ABC with search warrants naming two journalists and the news director. The ABC is protesting the raid.
The action by police is related to articles about misconduct by Australian forces in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday police searched the home of a News Corp journalist, sparking alarm.
The leading journalists’ union said the two raids – which police said were not connected – represented a “disturbing pattern of assaults on Australian press freedom”.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), the search is about the 2017 investigative series known as The Afghan Files which “revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan”.
ABC said the series was “based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to them”.
The Australian Federal Police said the warrant was in relation to “allegations of publishing classified material” and that it “relates to a referral received on 11 July 2017 from the Chief of the Defence Force and the then-Acting Secretary for Defence”.
The Afghan Files were published by the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) on 10 July 2017.
The raid ‘raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press
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