In response to comments from the ABC Managing Director and WA Police Minister, the following is a statement from Disrupt Burrup Hub media advisor Jesse Noakes:
“There is no way that the ABC can release Four Corners footage to WA Police without betraying confidential sources who were given specific, explicit undertakings they would remain anonymous as a precondition for their participation.
Four Corners were given access to two Disrupt Burrup Hub events, a public meeting and an action training, on the proviso that any sources needing to remain anonymous would not feature in any footage made public. At least three people requested and received that specific undertaking in advance of Four Corners filming their participation in these events.
Apart from these specific undertakings, all of Four Corners access to the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign was the product of numerous conversations over several months in the course of which agreements over access and exposure were continually negotiated. At no point was there any prospect or possibility that any of the footage filmed as a result of that understanding would be provided to police, and so to do so now would necessarily breach the agreements between the ABC and their sources for this story.
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 - and I hope ABC management appreciate the full implications of that.
The WA Police Minister demanding that ABC comply with the police request and surrender footage is barely credible, with the WA government at this point operating as an almost wholly owned subsidiary of Woodside's Burrup Hub.
If the ABC release this footage to WA police, who will ever trust the ABC to tell their story again?”
