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Turnbull: 60 Minutes was “most unwise”

Prime Minister says regulatory bodies such as ASIC would be interested in Nine actions.

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has indicated regulatory authorities would be interested in payments surrounding the 60 Minutes story.

2SM’s John Laws asked whether the Australian Securities and Investment Commission should examine Nine payments. It follows Sunrise host David Koch quizzing Treasurer Scott Morrison yesterday.

“I’ve seen those reports, I’ve got no doubt it will be of interest to various regulatory agencies,” Turnbull said.

“I’d rather say no more about it, other than to make this observation: it doesn’t matter who you are, or who you work for, when you are overseas you must obey the laws of the country in which you are visiting. Nobody is above the law.

“If you break the law in other parts of the world, you may well be breaking Australian law as well.

“We have laws against corruption, we have laws against fighting overseas for terrorist organisations or in foreign wars. There are a lot of Australian laws you can break overseas.

“From what I have read about it, it appears to have been most unwise.”

Meanwhile other media reports have suggested Nine contacted profile Lebanese-Australians to help secure the freedom of its crew as “negotiators.”

Fairfax reports Nine approached underworld figure Mick Gatto and his business partner John Khoury had been preparing to fly to Beirut last Monday.

“We are not making any comments about the various rumours racing around about who we might have spoken to or not, nor what any attempts Nine staff might have made to reach anyone they knew with connections in Lebanon to help bring their colleagues home,” a Channel Nine spokeswoman said.

“I can confirm there were no formal Network decisions about engaging their [Gatto and Khoury’s] services in any capacity.”

7.30 also reported controversial former NSW politician Eddie Obeid was approached by a friend from Channel Nine, and made a number of calls to senior Lebanese politicians. Nine denied the allegation.

No word if the Habibs were being roped in too.

Source: Guardian

12 Responses

  1. The long interview with Anthony McClellan (ex-60Mins) on Lateline, Friday night, was quite damning.
    Guess Channel Nine wish Malcolm was still their in-house lawyer.

  2. It is not as if this has not happened before, isn’t it all cheque-book journalism that most are involved in at one time or another – the media should learn not to throw stones (Kochie).

    1. Re cheque-book journalism, Sky News made a good point this afternoon. Cheque-book journalism has most commonly been used to induce a person to tell their story (my addition: usually about an event that has already taken place) to a particular media outlet with exclusivity. In the 60 Minutes affair, cheque-book journalism – if indeed Channel 9 did make the alleged payments – was employed to enable the event to take place.

      1. I think the word ‘commonly’ is the word here, it is common, it may not fall over like this did but it does happen. Any investigated story may need money to change hands. Very few things are free in our society anymore.

    1. Rumours? A rumour is not a rumour when the person involved says it is a fact. The ANZ receipt is no rumour. Nine’s denials are deafening.
      It’s not “getting ridiculous”, it was ridiculous.

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