AFP reject comments by media union on scale of access, saying requests were ‘rare’, as debate over data retention bill intensifies

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Australian Federal Police have confirmed for the first time they have accessed journalists’ telecommunications metadata in the past 18 months, but said requests were “rare”.

They said they had received 13 referrals relating to alleged unauthorised disclosures by commonwealth officials, but in the “overwhelming majority” of those cases there was no need to access journalists’ metadata. Not all the referrals related to disclosures through the media.

The comments were made as part of a statement that rejected comments by Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance chief executive Paul Murphy about how many times the AFP had accessed journalists’ metadata.

On Monday Murphy said that in a meeting with the AFP and other government officers the AFP “had been repeatedly asked to hunt down journalists’ sources by accessing journalists’ metadata and [AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin] confirmed that it is doing so”.

“The data retention bill will simply formalise these activities with no regard to the press freedom implications and presumably encourage at least 20 government agencies to go trawling through journalists’ metadata,” Murphy said.

The AFP said the statement was inaccurate and distorted the comments. But they also confirmed a small number of authorisations for access to journalists’ metadata had been made.

The release said: “Commissioner Colvin said that over the past 18 months, the AFP has received 13 referrals relating to the alleged unauthorised disclosure of commonwealth information in breach of section 70 of the Crimes Act.

“This offence specifically criminalises the activity of commonwealth officials who have released commonwealth information in contravention of their obligations, not journalists.”

“In the overwhelming majority of these investigations, no need was identified to conduct a metadata telecommunications inquiry on a journalist. AFP requests for accessing a journalist’s metadata are rare.”

Guardian Australia has previously reported that eight of these referrals related to stories about asylum seekers.

The AFP have confirmed that at least one of these referrals resulted in an investigation – into a story about the customs vessel Ocean Protector’s incursions into Indonesian waters – that is still under way.

The AFP did not disclose as part of the release of documents under freedom of information laws any information about whether journalists’ phone or web records had been accessed.

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Journalists and politicians have tried in the past – unsuccessfully – to gain more information from the AFP on metadata requests issued relating to leak investigations.

Guardian Australia has lodged freedom of information requests and requests under the Privacy Act 1988 to determine whether authorisations have been made for reporters’ phone and web data.

The AFP has refused to confirm or deny the existence of any authorisations, citing the secrecy provisions of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979.

In February last year the independent senator Nick Xenophon requested in Senate estimates details of the number of metadata authorisations used in commonwealth disclosure investigations.

The AFP said at the time they were not required to provide information about specific authorisations.

They said: “This system is configured to record and store information contained in the authorisation and to produce reports on the total number of authorisations. Whilst the information is stored in the system, the system is not designed to report on particular crime types which are being investigated.”

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, agreed on Monday to amend the government’s data retention bill to provide an additional safeguard for journalists that would require a warrant to be sought for access to their metadata.

The MEAA and Greens senator Scott Ludlam have continued to voice concern about the data retention scheme.

On Tuesday a number of Labor backbenchers also spoke out in opposition to the data retention bill in a caucus meeting.

The government is yet to put forward amendments to the scheme to clarify how the warrant requirement for access to journalists’ metadata would operate.