ABC chair Ita Buttrose is demanding clarification on the definition of "national security" after Australian Federal Police raids on the national broadcaster's Sydney office and a News Corp Australia journalist's home.
In a speech on Monday Ms Buttrose said the June raids "have not gone unnoticed overseas" and prompted accusations the Australian government sought to intimidate journalists into silence.
The AFP raid on ABC headquarters related to a series of 2017 stories alleging Australian soldiers carried out unlawful killings in Afghanistan, based on leaked Defence papers.
The other raid, on the home of Herald Sun journalist Annika Smethurst, related to a 2018 story detailing a government proposal to spy on Australians.
"Journalists always have been keepers of secrets. We can be trusted. We don't always report on everything that comes before us, often because some matters are truly in the interests of national security," Ms Buttrose said in Brisbane.
"But there needs to better clarification of exactly what being 'in the interests of national security' means."
This was no clearer than in aged care, Ms Buttrose said, with a royal commission on the sector releasing its interim report last week.
She said there were more than 4000 reports of nursing home assaults in Australia last year, but the ABC and other media organisations were barred from exploring those allegations in detail.
"The media is not permitted to tell Australians if they (the assaults) were by staff or residents, or if they led to convictions. Why is that? I have no idea," Ms Buttrose said.
"There cannot be any secrecy in our country that prevents us knowing how elderly Australians are cared for in our aged care facilities."
Ms Buttrose said the ABC had the opportunity "to be bold, to be enterprising, to be Australian" as commercial media outlets struggled to make ends meet amid declining advertising revenue.
Overseas media giants had also come to dominate the marketplace.
"We are all now in the ring with heavyweight opponents with whom we can't compete on pure size and strength. This means we have to be agile, creative, determined and fast-moving," Ms Buttrose said.
Australian Associated Press
