From Live Reporting to Watchdog Probe: Timeline of the Roberts-Smith Media Leak Controversy
By Alexander Ross
The reporting began inside hotel conference rooms and discreet Canberra cafes between 2017 and 2018. Journalists Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie gathered accounts from serving and former Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) operators. These sources grew disillusioned by what they described as an escalating cover-up of tactical executions in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
Those conversations coincided with the confidential Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) inquiry, led by Justice Paul Brereton. Leaked fragments of internal military complaints reached the press, detailing the 2009 mission at Whiskey 108 and a 2012 operation at Darwan. The disclosures were extraordinary. They bypassed internal defense public affairs firewalls and exposed operational patrol logs directly to public scrutiny.
Defense leadership initially attempted to identify the source of the disclosures. The Australian Federal Police raided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Sydney offices in June 2019 under national security search warrants. Rather than chilling the reporting, the raid accelerated the flow of off-the-record information. SAS insiders preserved evidence on encrypted drives, determined that accounts of unlawful conduct would reach the public record before any administrative suppression could occur.
Alexander Ross has covered the video game industry for a decade, writing deep dives on game design, esports tournaments, VR developments, and gaming culture.
