Police raid on Australian Broadcasting Corp. offices sparks firestorm over press freedom, natsec

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https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/police-raid-on-abc-offices-sparks-firestorm-over-press-freedom-and-national-security-20190605-p51utw.html

A sensational federal police raid on the ABC's Sydney headquarters has sparked a political firestorm over national security and the freedom of the press which poses significant tests for the re-elected Morrison government and the Labor opposition.

Coming just a day after a separate raid on the home of a News Corp political journalist, the search warrants related to the publication of stories in 2017 that accused Australia's elite special forces in Afghanistan of killing unarmed men and children. The Australian Federal Police stressed the raids were unrelated, while Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was forced to affirm the independence of the AFP from government after Labor queried the timing of the raids.

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It's understood the ABC and the AFP have been in talks about the search warrant since September, when it was first brought to the attention of the public broadcaster.

While both parties have been in discussions since then about a time at which to execute the warrant with minimal disruption to both parties, the negotiations inevitably culminated in the very public arrival of three AFP officers on Wednesday, which was the preference of the ABC.

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