Revealed: Secret plans to introduce media censorship in Australia

Documents obtained by Declassified Australia show that following the June 2019 Federal Police raids on the ABC and News Corp, the Department of Home Affairs began secret efforts to revive a four-decade dead system to censor the Australian media.

The Australian Federal Police had raided the offices of the ABC and News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst on 4 and 5 June 2019, in response to their reporting on alleged war crimes and a proposed domestic spying plan. Following the raids, Mike Pezzullo, then secretary of the Department of Home Affairs — a portfolio that included ASIO and the AFP — texted a close adviser to then Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison, Scott Briggs, with plans to censor the media. These texts had been brought to light in a 2023 report in The Age.

The documents show that, following Pezzullo’s proposal, Home Affairs officials looked to Britain’s Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee for assistance in reinstating D-Notices in Australia.

British D-Notices often seek to censor reporting on UK state crimes and other malfeasance.