News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst will not be charged over her 2018 story on the Australian Signals Directorate – which used leaked government documents – after Federal Police revealed they have dropped the investigation.
Smethurst’s home was sensationally raided last year, just days before similar raids were taken out at the ABC over its reporting on the ‘Afghan Files’.
According to the Herald, the AFP has now announced it will drop the Smethurst investigation.
The investigation into ABC journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clarke remains ongoing, according to the reports.
Following the raid, Smethurst took the AFP to the High Court for the incident, where it unanimously ruled the warrant used at Smethurst’s home was invalid because it “misstated the substance” of relevant criminal laws.
The court also declared the warrant was not specific enough regarding the alleged offences by Smethurst.
Despite the court ruling the actions of the police were unlawful, the court’s ruling did not prevent the investigators from using the material collected in the raid.
Deputy commissioner Ian McCartney told the media the police had decided to drop the case as investigators could not establish “the path of the document, where it came from and who it went to”.
McCartney maintained no other factors had contributed to the decision to drop the case.
