Broadcaster demands Australia police drop probe of reporters

Australian government assurances that public sector leakers rather than journalists are the targets of raids on two media organizations have come under question as new details have emerged of police efforts to track one reporter's movements and to discover who reporters talk to by phone.

Executives of Australian Broadcasting Corp. and News Corp. Australia have expressed their frustration that a month after raids on ABC's Sydney headquarters and a News Corp. political editor's Canberra home, "the fate of our journalists remains unclear."
They had joined with other media organization to demand legal reforms that would exempt journalists from national security laws passed since 2012 that "would put them in jail for doing their jobs."
Attorney-General Christian Porter, who would need to authorize any prosecution of reporters involved, said last month "there is absolutely no suggestion that any journalist is the subject of the present investigations."