“Don’t Hand it Over”: ABC journalists press management on Four Corners footage

ABC journalists across the country this week made their views known in the saga of ABC management being directed by WA Police to hand over Four Corners footage on climate protests.

Staff holding up signs saying “Don’t Hand it Over” and “Don’t Break Trust in Aunty” were posted on social media with the hashtag #PressFreedom.

They claim handing over footage would be a breach of the MEAA Code of Ethics and would devalue the public’s trust in the ABC.

MEAA’s ABC House Committee has also urged the ABC not to hand over the footage.

Western Australian police have applied through the courts for footage via the ‘Order to Produce’ provisions of the WA Criminal Investigations Act. The law compels organisations to comply.

ABC managing director, David Anderson has previouslysaid, “We don’t reveal our sources, we never have and never will.”

However ABC has not explicitly ruled out handing the vision to police.

A trial for Disrupt Burrup Hub’s media adviser, Jesse Noakes, is due in November.