Australian Media Allege Press Freedom Attack

Western Australian Police from the Major Fraud Squad raided The Sunday Times last week in a complaint against the paper allegedly by the Department of Premier and Cabinet. A report from Perthnow.com quoted department statements as saying that “it had ‘referred allegations of the unauthorised disclosure of a confidential document to the police and the Corruption and Crime Commission’ relating to a political exclusive about taxpayers’ money being used to fund the Labor Party’s re-election campaign.”

Media outfits around Australia were quick to react and branded the raid as “an attack on free speech.” The Sunday Times Editor, Sam Weir, told Perthnow.com that “It is deeply concerning that this is the second time this month police have entered The Sunday Times offices trying to uncover the sources of exclusive political stories broken by the newspaper’s journalists.”

Fairfax Media reiterated the observation and condemned the WA government according to a report.

Watch the raid on The Sunday Times on Perthnow.com