'Outrageous': Police Raid Home of Aussie Journalist Who Reported on Secret Domestic Spying Program

Australian police raided the home of one of the country’s prominent journalists Tuesday, raising questions about press freedom in that country and across the western world. 

Journalist Annika Smethurst, the national politics editor at Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph, was the target of the early morning raid. Police served a warrant at her home related to materials she obtained and used in a story on April 29, 2018, about an Australian government plan to expand surveillance capabilities for the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). 

In response to the raid, News Corp Australia, Smethurst’s employer, decried the police actions as “a dangerous act of intimidation.”

“What’s gone on this morning sends a clear and dangerous signals to journalists and newsrooms across Australia,” the company said in a statement. “This will chill public interest reporting.”

In Smethurst’s 2018 story, she detailed how the ASD intended to seek greater powers over surveillance targets—including Australian nationals, which the ASD is not permitted to surveil under Australian law. The new rules, if put in place, would have allowed the agency to access the private information of Australian citizens “without a trace,” reported Smethurst, citing “top secret letters between the heads of home affairs and defence.”

Those secret documents provided the impetus for the raid, according to a police statement. 

“This warrant relates to the alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret, which is an extremely serious matter that has the potential to undermine Australia’s national security,” the Australian Federal Police statement read.

Reaction in Australia and around the world sounded the alarm over the heavy-handed tactics of the police. 

“If you are not concerned over a journalist being raided on the basis of ‘national security concerns’ for reporting on the potential over reach of Australia’s security agencies into your lives, there is something seriously wrong,” tweeted Guardian Australia political reporter Amy Remeikis.

In a statement, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the union that represents Australian journalists, called the raid “outrageous.”

“Australians are entitled to know what their governments do in their name,” said union president Marcus Strom. “That clearly includes plans by government agencies to digitally spy on Australians by hacking into our emails, bank accounts and text messages.”