An Australian Federal Police agent told the ABC it wanted to avoid "sensationalist headlines" such as "AFP raids ABC" as it sought to seize a raft of documents from the broadcaster's Sydney headquarters, the Federal Court has heard.
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The ABC is challenging the legal validity of the search warrant authorising the federal police's June 5 raid on its offices in Ultimo and is seeking the return of documents seized at the time.
After a series of preliminary legal fights earlier this year, the full hearing in the Federal Court commenced on Monday. The court heard a federal police agent had contacted the ABC's legal department in January seeking the ABC's "assistance" in executing the search warrant.
The federal police investigation related to a 2017 report called The Afghan Files, based on leaked defence documents, and the search warrant named ABC reporters Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, and news director Gaven Morris.
Michael Rippon, a solicitor in the ABC's legal department, gave evidence that federal police agent Ian Brumby contacted him by phone in January and indicated police were of the view that "they had enough evidence" to obtain a search warrant and "they were looking for us to assist them with that".
He said Mr Brumby wanted the ABC to agree to a regime in which the broadcaster would be given "a number of weeks to fulfil the search" for documents responding to the terms of the search warrant and "get back to them".
Mr Rippon said he had a further conversation with Mr Brumby in February in which the federal police agent said "words to the effect of 'it's just our job to investigate' [and] 'we don't want any sensationalist headlines like AFP raids ABC'".
The ABC declined to assist the federal police in those terms and police subsequently raided the broadcaster's Sydney headquarters on June 5, a day after the federal police executed a separate search warrant on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst's Canberra home over an unrelated story.
Mr Rippon said he had concerns during the course of the raid that the "breadth of some of the searches" carried out by the federal police for ABC files were "way too wide", including references to Mr Oakes and Mr Clark with "no time period" specified.
"I got quite agitated with that attempted action and sought to stop it, which I did," Mr Rippon said.
The search warrant also referred in general terms to "documents classified as 'secret' ".
He said he also had a "very uncomfortable conversation, although cordial, with one of the agents who said to me ... that they were aware that there was ... material on the ABC's website other than the Afghan files which they were concerned about".
Mr Rippon said the federal police agent made it clear to him that the public interest defence available to journalists in respect of some crimes "was only a defence, and it didn't stop them investigating matters and potentially issuing further warrants if they thought it was necessary".
"In essence, he was conveying to me that I might want to think about those other stories," Mr Rippon said.
Mr Rippon said he replied that the ABC published a lot of public interest stories and "I can't see them taking them down".
The hearing continues.
- SMH/The Age
