Murdoch's News Ltd's murky "muscling" of police

[Swagman]

## the back ground to this story is how Rupert Murdoch's personal baby and beloved newspaper, The Australian came to publish raids on terrorism suspects 3 hours before they happened.

The newspapers with the sensational stories of the raids, naming streets, suburbs and in some cases, names of suspects were widely available throughout Melbourne, hours before they actually took part.

It's a tale of how corrupted News Ltd has become-dictating to police: on one hand News Ltd has been screeching in the UK and Australia (Fox News?) about the need for the power to publish but have fought tooth and nail to keep this story secret.

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When The Oz muscles the AFP, that’s a story

by Margaret Simons

Why does it matter that an editor of a newspaper plays extreme hardball with police over requests to hold a story? It wouldn’t matter, or not so much, if Australia had multiple such editors, and diffused media power.

But it is impossible to separate the extraordinary behaviour of News Limited editor Paul Whittaker, revealed in the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday without also considering the context of media power in Australia, and News Limited’s propensity to involve itself in the already devilishly murky world of police politics.

As Crikey reported from the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday, former editor of The Australian Paul Whittaker bargained with the Australian Federal Police over how many lives would be lost if the newspaper published its scoop on the Operation Neath anti-terrorism operation before raids took place. The Commissioner of the AFP, Tony Negus, said that when he told Whittaker  —  now editor of the Daily Telegraph  —  that lives would be at risk if he published, Whittaker replied: “Well, how many lives are at risk?”

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/11/03/simons-when-the-oz-muscles-the-afp-thats-a-story/