Annika Smethurst

Annika Smethurst      (journalist)
Born	1987
Nationality	Australian
Alma mater	Monash University
Victim of	War on Journalism
Interests	Australia/Universal surveillance

Annika Smethurst is an Australian journalist.

Activities

Commercially-controlled media reported widely on the Australian Federal Police raiding Annika Smethurst's home in 2019.

Espionage exclusive and AFP raid

On 4 June 2019, the Australian Federal Police raided Smethurst's home over a story she published in 2018. She had been reporting on "alleged plans to allow greater surveillance of Australian citizens," with agents searching her computer, phone, and home. At the time of the raid, she was the political editor of Sydneys' The Sunday Telegraph.

In her original report in April 2018, she "revealed top secret emails between Department of Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo and Department of Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty, discussing a plan to allow the cyber spy agency to snoop on Australian citizens." A "tepid" response to the raid, which included going through her cookbooks and underwear, from the prime minister resulted in criticism from the press and organizations such as the Australian Lawyers Alliance. News Corp called it a "dangerous act of intimidation." The AFP confirmed the raid was not only to uncover her source, but to potentially look into Smethurst and News Corp as targets for a criminal charge.

On 15 April 2020, the High Court of Australia ruled that the search warrant used in the raid was invalid.

On 27 May 2020 the AFP announced that Smethurst would not be charged over her stories that "… relied on classified intelligence documents".

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