Scoop on terrorists dissed as non-story
Centre for Advanced Journalism director Margaret Simons said yesterday there was "no public interest" in The Australian revealing a 2009 plot by Islamic extremists in Melbourne to launch a suicide attack on an Australian army base.
The award-winning report by Cameron Stewart detailed plans for the second biggest counter-terrorism plot in the nation's history.
Dr Simons said yesterday the report failed the public interest test in part because it meant the community found out about the Operation Neath raids on the suspects behind the plots only "a few hours before we would otherwise have done so".
She alleged that the Australian Federal Police's briefing to The Australian on the matter before the story was published had also given "rise to concerns that the AFP might have dealt corruptly with information".
She acknowledged this was later found to be be wrong.
"The core issue in this case is that there was no public interest in the Operation Neath scoop, and considerable harm and potential harm in how The Australian handled it," she said.
"The net result of the AFP briefings to Stewart, following (former editor Paul) Whittaker playing hardball with the AFP, was that we found out about the operation and the raids a few hours before we would otherwise have done so."
Dr Simons, who is a relentless critic of News Limited and The Australian, has refused to apologise for her campaign against Stewart and this newspaper's handling of the story.
Victoria Police Detective Senior Constable Simon Artz last week pleaded guilty to a breach of police regulations for making an unauthorised disclosure to Stewart in the lead-up to the August 4, 2009, report being published.
Mr Artz, 43, signed a deed of release clearing Stewart and the newspaper of any professional and ethical obligations after coming under investigation.
Dr Simons wrote thousands of words attacking the newspaper and criticising Stewart. She also consistently attacked The Australian's broader coverage of the Office of Police Integrity and then police chief Simon Overland, in particular reporting of the failed pursuit of former assistant commissioner Noel Ashby and former police association secretary Paul Mullett.
The criticism of Stewart's handling of his source continued even after Dr Simons was told directly by Chris Warren, secretary of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, that Stewart's actions were entirely consistent with the MEAA's code of ethics.
In a submission to the inquiry into Australia's media by Ray Finkelstein QC, The Australian argued that Dr Simons had frequently breached the media's code of ethics in her coverage of the affair, a claim she denies.
In part, Dr Simons had argued that the story should not have been published because a small number of copies of the newspaper had been inadvertently sold in Melbourne before the raids were carried out. She also argued the story had imperilled a source and the timing of publication had put people at risk.
In the interests of national security, The Australian went to great lengths to ensure police safety was not compromised.
The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity found that the early publication of the story was due to an accidental miscommunication between the AFP and the paper.
The Australian 's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, said the story had been approved by the AFP before it was run.
"Meg Simons has no idea how she has been played," he said. "We held a story for almost a week; the story as published was vetted by the AFP and via the oversight committee of the raid, by Victoria Police. We published that story, fully approved, in our last editions as agreed. Hedley Thomas's work on the Ashby/Mullett/Operation Briars story will be fully vindicated.
"Meg should ask herself why the judge in the case and ACLEI supported The Australian's suppression of the totally corrupt police draft report into Operation Neath. Meg's vice-chancellor and dean need to have a good look at whether this is the sort of person who should be running a so-called Centre for Advanced Journalism. She owes Cameron Stewart a huge apology.
"Meg defamed Cameron many times on the Crikey website and elsewhere, accusing him of selling out a source. What the OPI secrecy provisions prevented us from saying was that the source had signed a deed of release before Cam was ever interviewed.
"Morally, ethically and journalistically, everyone in this business knows she should correct the record. She is 100 per cent wrong."
University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis was asked if Dr Simons should apologise to Stewart or whether her actions should affect her role as director of the centre. He did not respond.
Whittaker has strongly rejected Dr Simons' claim he had "bargained" with the AFP over how many lives would be lost if the terrorism story was published.
Dr Simons, whose department is based at the University of Melbourne, said yesterday she was not backing away from her position.
"I remain critical of The Australian's conduct," she said. "Most of my reporting and commentary concerned the court action by The Australian to suppress the OPI-ACLEI report and its criticisms of the paper's conduct.
"I was also very critical of the simultaneous and subsequent campaign against the OPI and Overland, which followed Chris Mitchell's threat to the OPI as part of the attempt to suppress the OPI/ACLEI report. In attempting to justify its actions, and to cover up criticism of its conduct, it is The Australian that has 'over-egged' in defence and attack."
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