Activist links arrests to Four Corners footage

New charges levelled against environmental activists by WA Police have been linked to Four Corners footage, according to one of those arrested.

Three activists were charged on Wednesday in relation to a planned protest outside the Perth home of the Woodside chief executive, Meg O’Neill, in August.

The Guardian reports Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigner Tahlia Stolarski, said police told her she had been arrested due to the release of the Four Corners footage.

The arrests, more than three months after the protest, follow ABC given a “compulsory legal process” to hand over raw footage.

The ABC has not confirmed it complied with the WA police order for the footage.

Disrupt Burrup Hub media adviser Jesse Noakes, one of the activists charged in relation to the planned protest in August, said last month that “should the ABC surrender any Four Corners footage to WA police, if any of these people face legal liability or criminal prosecution that will be entirely on the ABC – I hope the ABC management appreciate the full implications of that”.

An ABC spokesperson has said in a statement that “like other media organisations, the ABC from time to time receives compulsory legal processes seeking access to material”.