Last week, Hack had planned to meet and interview Chelsea Manning face-to-face at the triple j studios.

The convicted US whistleblower was expected to headline a conference at the Sydney Opera House last Sunday, before the government reviewed her request for a visa citing Section 501 of the Migration Act.

In 2010 the former soldier and intelligence analyst who worked in Iraq was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks.

It was the biggest breach of classified data in the history of the US and Chelsea was found guilty of espionage; after serving seven years in prison, her sentence was eventually commuted by then-President Barack Obama, but her conviction was still recorded.

While our initial interview was canned due to Manning's visa drama, we scheduled a pre-recorded interview over the phone with Chelsea Manning yesterday.

In the end, it didn't last nearly as long as we'd hoped.

Hack host Tom Tilley started off by asking her about her visa issues - "I think that it's not necessarily fatal to my ability to speak but I would've liked to have come to Australia," Chelsea said, before challenging the government's denial of her visa on grounds of "national security".

"National security is often used by powerful people and institutions as a sort of argument by authority," she said.

During her court case, the prosecution argued Chelsea betrayed her country by leaking documents and information she knew Al Qaeda would see and use against America.

As Tom Tilley asked Chelsea Manning about this, our interview was cut short.

Here's what happened.

Tom Tilley: Some of your leaked documents were found in Osama Bin Laden's compound though, after his death, that's information in the hands of one of America's biggest enemies. Do you have any regrets about that outcome? What did you think when you heard that?

Chelsea Manning: Ah - look I can't really talk about specifics of my court-martial. The record of trial is still classified.

Tom Tilley: But why does that mean you can't say how you felt when you found out that piece of information? Do you dispute that's true?

Chelsea Manning: Ah I can't - I can't even tell you whether or not we dispute that it's true. It's that highly classified.

Tom Tilley: Ok. What was the message you were hoping -

Media minder 1: Can I intervene here for a second? Sorry -

Tom Tilley: You can intervene but it will go to air. It will go to air if you intervene. So go ahead.

Media minder 2: Sorry what was that Tom?

Tom Tilley: If you guys jump in, I'm going to put it on radio.

Media Minder 2: Ok we're just going to end this here.

Tom Tilley: Why?

Media Minder 2: Thank you very much. Chelsea, hang up.

Tom Tilley: Why? Why can't we carry on this interview? What was wrong with my questioning? If you guys are talking about transparency and openness, surely we can continue this interview.

Suzi Jamil: Tom this is Suzi, the director of Think Inc. I guess What's a priority for us is to be respectful to our talent. I understand there might be nothing wrong with your questioning, but we just want to be really respectful to Chelsea, because she's given up her time to have this conversation.

Tom Tilley: But don't you think you should be respectful to the Australian people? This is a taxpayer funded government broadcaster, we're giving her the platform to come on and put forward her views. Surely she can answer some reasonable questions.

Suzi Jamil: I appreciate that Tom. and I think that at this point we'd rather not move forward any further. Happy to talk to you off the line, after this, one on one. If you'd like my comment I'm happy to give it.

Tom Tilley: Ok I guess we'll leave it there.

After putting this to air, Tom explained how he handled the tricky situation.

"I believe that someone with a well known controversial history is going to get the opportunity to speak on the national broadcaster and air their political views, they also need to be prepared to answer some accountability questions for their actions," Tom said.

"As to why I made sure the people jumping in knew they'd be going to air - as journalists we can't let a precedent be set where media minders can interrupt interviews whenever they want. It would mean they could do it all the time, and they'd have too much power to manipulate the messages."

Listen to yesterday's episode of Hack below.

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