After Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister David Johnston all pilloried the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for reporting the allegations concerning mistreatment of certain asylum seekers intercepted at sea, it appears that the public broadcaster may have no case to answer.
The Sydney Morning Herald
The ''torture at sea'' affair now has some of the troubling hallmarks of the ''children overboard'' episode of 2001, with a twist.
It was Fasher who alleged a month ago that three asylum seekers had their hands deliberately burned by the Australian navy during its second operation to tow back an asylum vessel to Indonesia in January....
His account has been consistent from the first. He says he has no doubt that what he saw at close quarters on about January 3 was three people's hands being deliberately held to a hot exhaust pipe by Australian naval personnel to punish them for protesting, and to deter others from doing one simple thing: going to the toilet too often.
They are allegations which, when given credence and air time by the ABC, encouraged the Abbott government and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited to open a culture war with the national broadcaster, to review its funding and question its reach into Asia.....
His account has been consistent from the first. He says he has no doubt that what he saw at close quarters on about January 3 was three people's hands being deliberately held to a hot exhaust pipe by Australian naval personnel to punish them for protesting, and to deter others from doing one simple thing: going to the toilet too often.
They are allegations which, when given credence and air time by the ABC, encouraged the Abbott government and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited to open a culture war with the national broadcaster, to review its funding and question its reach into Asia.....
Border Protection officials will make fresh inquiries into claims that its sailors deliberately burned the hands of asylum seekers after a witness gave Fairfax Media a detailed account of the alleged abuse.
After weeks of flat denials by Defence, Customs and the Abbott government, Fairfax Media understands that the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service will lead a review of the information that forms the basis of the denials.
After Fairfax Media on Friday published detailed allegations by a Sudanese man who says he witnessed sailors forcing the hands of three asylum seekers onto a hot engine pipe, the government again refused to say why it was so certain the allegations were untrue.
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