Afghan Files (Australia)

Problems with organisation culture The documents raised concerns over the “organisational culture” including a “warrior culture”, with particular concern over “desensitisation” and “drift in values” among elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Preceding the event, the special forces were searching for an Australian National Priority Target codenamed "Objective Rapier", a senior insurgent commander responsible for numerous terrorist attacks. Helicopters and over 120 troops were involved in the search. Mutilation of the dead, however, is a violation of the laws of war. Captain Andrew Hastie, disturbed by the event, reported the incident up the chain of command. == Government raid and investigation ==

On 5 June 2019, the Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney based headquarters of the ABC over a period of eight hours, Another agency, likely ASIO or ASD, was also present. During the raid, lawyers representing the ABC were forced to interpret the warrant and work with the AFP to ensure privileged information not under the purview of the warrant was not released. and an FOI request into the incident revealed that the AFP were intentionally targeting journalists, and that prosecution of journalists involved was considered. In February 2020 the case was dismissed by the federal court, and the AFP began the process of accessing the confiscated files while the ABC rushed to get an injunction. In June 2020, the AFP sent a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), the federal public prosecutor, recommending charges be laid against journalist Dan Oakes for breaking the Afghan Files story. As it was such a high profile case, prosecution also required final approval from the then Attorney General of Australia, Christian Porter. In October 2020, the CDPP announced that, despite believing they would succeed in conviction on several charges, they would not be prosecuting Oakes. ==Senate inquiry==

The raid on the ABC offices, along with another AFP raid on the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst in the same month, became the subject of a Senate inquiry by the Environment and Communications References Committee on press freedom. The final report, published in May 2021, made 17 recommendations, including proposed reforms to laws that have the potential to criminalise public interest journalism, as well as proposals to improve federal protections for whistleblowers. == See also ==