Jamu Barokahs

Rabu, 05 Juni 2019

ABC raid: Australia police search headquarters of public broadcaster - BBC News

A police raid on Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) has drawn fire from broadcasters and rights groups.

Officers arrived at the public broadcaster's Sydney headquarters with search warrants naming two reporters and the news director. The ABC has protested over the raid.

Police searched the home of a News Corp journalist on Tuesday, sparking alarm.

The BBC said it was "deeply troubling" for a broadcaster to be searched.

The leading journalists' union in the country said the two raids represented a "disturbing pattern of assaults on Australian press freedom". Other unions and human rights groups also condemned the actions.

In a statement ABC Managing Director David Anderson said the police raid "raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press".

"The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest."

ABC News director Gaven Morris defended the two journalists who were named along with him in the search warrant.

Why the searches?

The police action is related to articles about alleged misconduct by Australian forces in Afghanistan.

According to the ABC, Wednesday's search is about the 2017 investigative series known as The Afghan Files which "revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan".

The broadcaster said the series was "based off hundreds of pages of secret defence documents leaked to the ABC".

The Australian Federal Police said the warrant was in relation to "allegations of publishing classified material" and that it "relates to a referral received on 11 July 2017 from the Chief of the Defence Force and the then-Acting Secretary for Defence".

The Afghan Files were published by the ABC on 10 July 2017.

Tuesday's search at the home of newspaper journalist Annika Smethurst related to her 2018 report about a government plan to spy on Australian citizens.

Police said their warrant was linked with "the alleged publishing of information classified as an official secret".

The police said Tuesday's and Wednesday's raids were not connected, adding: "Both however relate to separate allegations of publishing classified material, contrary to provisions of the Crimes Act 1914, which is an extremely serious matter that has the potential to undermine Australia's national security."

It defended its actions, saying they had "been independent and impartial at all times".

ABC journalist John Lyons, who live-tweeted the raid, said that police went through 9,214 documents found on the ABC systems one-by-one, including "thousands of internal ABC emails".

Also on Tuesday, Ben Fordham, a broadcaster for radio station 2GB, said that the government was investigating how he had obtained information that up to six boats carrying asylum seekers had recently tried to reach Australia.

The BBC contacted the home affairs ministry for comment. A spokesperson would not confirm or deny the existence of the investigation.

"The chances of me revealing my sources is zero. Not today, not tomorrow, next week or next month. There is not a hope in hell of that happening," Fordham said.

What reaction has there been?

The raids have been met with widespread condemnation by media outlets and press freedom groups.

The search of Ms Smethurst's home provoked anger from her employer News Corp Australia. The multinational media corporation, owned by press mogul Rupert Murdoch, called the raid "outrageous and heavy-handed" and "a dangerous act of intimidation".

News Corp - whose UK titles include The Times and the Sun newspapers - said the public's right to know was being undermined by the Australian government.

Peter Greste, director of the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom, said Australians who value press freedom will be concerned by the raids.

Mr Greste, a former Al Jazeera reporter, suggested his jailing by the Egyptian government in 2013 on national security charges is "on the same spectrum".

The raids could have a "chilling effect on the right of journalists to carry out their jobs", the National Press Club of Australia said in a statement.

"The scene might be expected in an authoritarian country but not in a democracy," Reporters Without Borders said of the raids on Twitter.

Whistleblowers in the cross-hairs?

by Jay Savage, Australia editor, BBC News website

Australian journalists have reacted furiously, calling the raids "outrageous" and "chilling"; one editor said he'd "never seen an assault on the media as savage".

Police insist that there is no link between the scouring of the ABC and a News Corp Australia journalist's home.

But the timing is more than curious: two raids, on successive days, concerning stories that were published more than a year ago. Each piece explored matters of transparency in clandestine Australian institutions.

Some suspect it is the whistleblowers - not the media - who are actually being targeted.

Political opponents say all of this raises "serious questions" for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government - which has denied any interference - and there are calls for an urgent inquiry into press freedom.

Others say the media should reflect upon defending all whistleblowers' interests as noisily as it defends itself.

What's the background?

Australia introduced new espionage offences last year that human rights advocates say could be used to target journalists and whistleblowers.

The two raids come weeks after a new centre-right government was elected. In a surprise result, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was returned to office.

He responded to Tuesday's raid on Ms Smethurst's Canberra home by saying that while he supported press freedom, "it never troubles me that our laws are being upheld".

The opposition Labor party has asked Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to explain the raids.

Mr Dutton said he was only informed of the raids after they had taken place.

"Like all Australians, I believe in the freedom of the press," Mr Dutton said.

"We have clear rules and protections for that freedom of the press and we also have clear rules and laws protecting Australia's national security."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48522729

2019-06-05 12:55:28Z
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Alleged Darwin gunman arrested after shooting rampage leaves four dead – video - The Guardian

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https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/jun/05/alleged-darwin-gunman-arrested-after-shooting-rampage-leaves-four-dead-video

2019-06-05 11:27:00Z
52780308930685

Australian Police Raids Target News Media Over Leaked Documents - The New York Times

SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney offices of Australia’s public broadcaster on Wednesday, apparently in connection with an article published in 2017 about Australian special forces being investigated over possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

The raid of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s offices came a day after the same agency searched the home, computer and cellphone of a journalist who reported on secret correspondence between government ministries over a plan to expand intelligence agencies’ surveillance powers. The police said the two raids were not related.

John Lyons, the executive editor of ABC News and the head of its investigative journalism unit, said on Twitter that the police had arrived at ABC’s headquarters with a search warrant that named three journalists. “We’ll be taking material with us. It will be sealed,” he quoted one of the officers as saying.

AFP arriving at ABC. Not sure “welcome” is quite the right word. pic.twitter.com/oRVng3bH2x
— John Lyons (@TheLyonsDen) June 5, 2019

The federal police said the raid was connected to allegations of publishing classified material, saying they had received a referral on July 11, 2017, from the Australian military and the then-defense secretary. On that date, ABC published “The Afghan Files,” an article based on leaked military documents that detailed clandestine Australian operations in Afghanistan, including cases in which children and unarmed men were killed.

It is against the law in Australia for government officials to disclose classified or secret information. That allows the police to investigate leaks to journalists.

ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, said in a statement that it was “highly unusual for the national broadcaster to be raided in this way.”

“This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and defense matters,” he said. “The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favor on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest.”

[Want Australia news in your inbox? Sign up for the weekly Australia Letter.]

The journalist whose home was raided on Tuesday, Annika Smethurst, is the political editor of The Sunday Telegraph of Sydney, one of Australia’s most-read newspapers. She was at her residence in Canberra, the capital, on Tuesday morning when Australian Federal Police officers arrived with a warrant to search her house and belongings.

The police said in a statement that the warrant was related “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 police on Tuesday raided the home of Annika Smethurst, the political editor of The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney.

Asked about the raid on Tuesday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “It never troubles me that our laws are being upheld.”

The raid on Ms. Smethurst’s home was believed to be the first such action against an Australian journalist in more than a decade. The Australian union for journalists, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, called it “an outrageous attack on press freedom.”

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

The Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp. Australia, the parent company of The Sunday Telegraph, said that Ms. Smethurst had complied with the warrant. News Corp. called the raid “outrageous and heavy-handed.”

In April 2018, Ms. Smethurst reported that a top-secret proposal to expand the powers of the Australian Signals Directorate, the equivalent of the National Security Agency in the United States, was to be submitted for ministerial approval. She wrote that the proposal would allow “cyber spooks to target onshore threats without the country’s top law officer knowing.”

In the article, she quoted Mike Pezzullo, then the secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, as advocating “further legislative reform” to help law enforcement agencies combat “online, cybercrime and cyber-enabled criminal threats facing Australia.”

Under current law, the signals directorate cannot gather intelligence on Australian citizens. But the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the country’s domestic spy agency, have the power to do so with a warrant. They can also turn to the signals directorate for technical guidance.

Since the article was published, there has been no formal government proposal for legislative amendments on the issue.

While the police are allowed to investigate leaks to journalists, members of the news media do have some recourse. Legislation passed in recent years gives journalists protection from having to disclose their sources. But courts can decide that the public interest in learning the identities of sources outweighs any adverse effect of disclosure.

After the raid on Ms. Smethurst’s home was reported, an Australian talk radio host, Ben Fordham, told listeners that his executive producer had been contacted by the Department of Home Affairs after he said on the air that several boats full of asylum seekers had tried to come to Australia from Sri Lanka, citing a source he did not identify.

He said the department told his producer it had begun an investigation, targeting his source. “The chances of me revealing my source are zero,” Mr. Fordham told his listeners.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/world/australia/journalist-raid-annika-smethurst.html

2019-06-05 06:03:37Z
CAIiEHKm043m3LlJp-c7nZ3Xo2sqFwgEKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzww5oEY

Alleged Darwin gunman arrested after shooting rampage leaves four dead – video - The Guardian

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https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/jun/05/alleged-darwin-gunman-arrested-after-shooting-rampage-leaves-four-dead-video

2019-06-05 02:43:00Z
52780308930685

Selasa, 04 Juni 2019

Qantas To Fly Nonstop From Australia To Chicago - One Mile at a Time

Earlier I wrote about how the joint venture between American & Qantas was conditionally approved today. This is something that the two airlines have been hoping to get approved for years now, so the fact that this finally came through is big news.

However, in order to justify this joint venture, they had to prove to the Department of Transportation that this would be in the best interest of consumers. As part of that, American and Qantas said that they’d launch up to three additional new routes between Australia and the US in the next two years, in addition to increasing capacity on existing routes.

While these routes have been rumored for quite a while, Qantas has now confirmed what they will be.

Qantas will launch nonstop flights from Brisbane to both Chicago and San Francisco in the next two years. They say they’ll do this once they’re given final approval from the DOT for the joint venture.

Qantas’ 787-9 business class

These two flights are pretty significant:

Qantas already flies from Melbourne and Sydney to San Francisco, so adding a third destination from the Bay Area is impressive; San Francisco is a huge market, and on top of that Qantas has a partnership with Alaska, which provides them feed to & from SFO
A Brisbane to Chicago flight would cover a distance of nearly 9,000 miles, and would be just about 100 miles shorter than Qantas’ Perth to London flight; this would be the world’s fourth longest flight

Both of these routes would be operated by 787s. Qantas currently has eight 787-9s in their fleet, with a further six to be delivered in the next couple of years. Presumably they’d need a couple of additional 787s to launch either of those routes, unless they shuffle around their current network.

You might be wondering why Qantas would operate their Chicago flight from Brisbane rather than Sydney. Well, the flight to Sydney would be about 330 miles longer, and at ~9,230 miles, that’s a stretch for the 787-9, especially with the headwinds we often see across the Pacific.

As far as additional routes go, in the past Qantas has talked about launching nonstop flights to Seattle. While that hasn’t been mentioned this time around, I imagine it’s something that’s on their radar.

Qantas’ 787-9 premium economy

Bottom line

While I’m generally against the expansion of joint ventures — especially in markets where there’s already not enough competition — we may see some good new routes and capacity increases come from this.

The question is whether Qantas would have launched these routes otherwise. There’s no denying that both American and Qantas have intentionally scaled back transpacific flights in order to make a compelling case to the DOT, so even if they saw a business case for either of these routes without a joint venture, they absolutely would have waited.

What do you make of Qantas launching Brisbane to Chicago & San Francisco flights?

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https://onemileatatime.com/qantas-brisbane-chicago/

2019-06-04 12:05:02Z
CBMiM2h0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3FhbnRhcy1icmlzYmFuZS1jaGljYWdvL9IBAA

Qantas To Fly Nonstop From Australia To Chicago - One Mile at a Time

While these routes have been rumored for quite a while, Qantas has now confirmed what they will be.

Qantas’ 787-9 business class

These two flights are pretty significant:

Qantas already flies from Melbourne and Sydney to San Francisco, so adding a third destination from the Bay Area is impressive; San Francisco is a huge market, and on top of that Qantas has a partnership with Alaska, which provides them feed to & from SFO
A Brisbane to Chicago flight would cover a distance of nearly 9,000 miles, and would be just about 100 miles shorter than Qantas’ Perth to London flight; this would be the world’s fourth longest flight

Qantas’ 787-9 premium economy

Bottom line

What do you make of Qantas launching Brisbane to Chicago & San Francisco flights?

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://onemileatatime.com/qantas-brisbane-chicago/

2019-06-04 11:22:47Z
CBMiM2h0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3FhbnRhcy1icmlzYmFuZS1jaGljYWdvL9IBAA

Qantas To Fly Nonstop From Australia To Chicago - One Mile at a Time

While these routes have been rumored for quite a while, Qantas has now confirmed what they will be.

Qantas’ 787-9 business class

These two flights are pretty significant:

Qantas already flies from Melbourne and Sydney to San Francisco, so adding a third destination from the Bay Area is impressive; San Francisco is a huge market, and on top of that Qantas has a partnership with Alaska, which provides them feed to & from SFO
A Brisbane to Chicago flight would cover a distance of nearly 9,000 miles, and would be just about 100 miles shorter than Qantas’ Perth to London flight; this would be the world’s fourth longest flight

Qantas’ 787-9 premium economy

Bottom line

What do you make of Qantas launching Brisbane to Chicago & San Francisco flights?

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://onemileatatime.com/qantas-brisbane-chicago/

2019-06-04 09:55:23Z
CBMiM2h0dHBzOi8vb25lbWlsZWF0YXRpbWUuY29tL3FhbnRhcy1icmlzYmFuZS1jaGljYWdvL9IBAA