Seven wins case against Australian Federal Police
Seven is seeking legal costs following a Federal Court win against the AFP over the raid investigating a deal with Schapelle Corby.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Seven has had a win against the Australian Federal Police with the Federal Court today quashing search warrants and other orders following an investigation into an apparent ‘deal’ with Schapelle Corby.
The Court found that errors contained in the warrants and orders, which referred to Seven personnel and solicitors as “suspects” of an investigation and as being reasonably suspected of having committed criminal offences, could not be brushed aside as trivial or insignificant.
CEO Tim Worner issued a statement:
Today’s decision represents a victory for free speech given that our hard working and award winning news and public affairs team and people at The West Australian and Pacific Magazines were only doing their job in reporting on a matter of wide public interest.
We abhor the notion that it is apparently fine to seize journalists’ correspondence, notes or contact lists.
Today’s decision in the Federal Court underlines our commitment to the reporting and telling of stories that matter.
I would like to acknowledge Bruce McWilliam and his legal team at Seven West Media, and also Justine Munsie at our legal firm Addisons, for their work, commitment and pursuit on this.
More personally, I am glad any implied mark against Seven has been removed, given at all times we were co-operating with the AFP in providing material. This has now been accepted.
Additionally, a number of staff members were directly affected by what occurred, and we as a company are sorry they were upset in this unreasonable way. We thank them also for their ongoing commitment to Seven.
We are all pleased by the result, although unfortunately it has been a very painful distraction.
In a statement Seven indicated it would seek payment of its legal costs from the AFP and is considering other options available to redress the costs of the investigation.
Seven’s Mike Willesee left Bali after interviewing Mercedes Corby but without an interview with Schapelle Corby.
8 Responses
As per my comment on the TVT article “Seven sues AFP over raid” –
Following the money…
The Budget: Federal Govt -> AFP
Seven wins: AFP -> Seven West
Corby I/V: Seven West -> Corby
Proceeds of Crime: Corby -> Federal Govt
– that’s the first two steps done. Next?
just rewatched some of the footage of the raid. the egos and rudeness of some of the officers with a search warrant in their hands looks very comical knowing what we know now. love to see what those men have to say for themselves today.
Seven should not be entirely unhappy about the police raids. After all, they resulted in one of the all-time classic TV moments, the sight of the Cash Cow shredding documents on Sunrise with Sam and Kochie’s priceless reaction.
True!
“They were ready to push the law to its limits and do the interview”.
What law? Seven would not have broken any law if they had done an interview, and paid for it. The beef would be between the Feds and Corby. That’s why it’s called ‘Proceeds of Crime’.
The Feds think they are beyond the law. Happy to see them learn, again, that they are not.
A bit more than journalistic freedom was at stake. If the police can make up stuff to obtain warrants to search and seize then nobody has any rights to privacy, due process or property.
The AFP putting out lies in press releases making more false allegations and claiming that it was just a typo and so didn’t matter because there was other evidence they could have used was nonsense, and those responsible should be held accountable.
Hopefully the AFP do not get any funding increases in the near future if this is where the money ends up.
The police acted incorrectly and so this is the right outcome.
Hard to have sympathy for Seven though. It’s the height of hypocrisy for them to be playing victims throughout all of this. They were ready to push the law to its limits and do the interview.