Federal police in Australia have raided the headquarters of the country's public service broadcaster.
ABC said officers entered its offices in Sydney on Wednesday over a series of 2017 stories known as 'The Afghan Files'.
The stories, by journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
ABC said they were based off hundreds of pages of secret defence documents leaked to the corporation.
The search warrant names Oakes, Clark and the ABC's director of news Gaven Morris.
In a tweet, Mr Morris defended his colleagues.
For the record,@DanielMOakes and @sclark_melbs are two of @abcnews’ finest journalists. Honest and committed to telling the truth in the Australian public’s interests. Just like @annikasmethurst. I’m proud of the difficult work they all do.
— Gaven Morris (@gavmorris) June 5, 2019
ABC said three police officers entered the building first - followed by three police IT technicians.
AFP arriving at @abcnews to execute a search warrant over the stories which revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australia Special Forces in Afghanistan. @abcnews #ABCraids pic.twitter.com/IW4tS7HTwA
— Elise Worthington (@elisereports) June 5, 2019
Officers also served the ABC legal team with a warrant and are searching for, and copying onto hard drives, information related to the warrant.
The AFP told the ABC they want to search through e-mail systems in relation to the people mentioned in the search warrant and were searching "data holdings" between April 2016 and July 2017.
They are also searching for article drafts, graphics, digital notes, visuals, raw television footage and all versions of scripts related to 'The Afghan Files' stories.
The ABC and the AFP were negotiating and debating whether or not each of the items seized fit the terms of the warrant.
ABC managing director David Anderson said it was "highly unusual for the national broadcaster to be raided in this way".
He told the broadcaster: "This is a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and defence matters.
"The ABC stands by its journalists, will protect its sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest."
ABC editorial director Craig McMurtrie said the raid as a "very unwelcome and serious development".
"This was outstanding reporting - it was clearly in the public interest and sometimes difficult truths have to be told," he said.
"We will be doing everything we can to limit the scope of this and we will do everything we can to stand by our reporters."
The ABC said its Melbourne offices, where Clark and Oakes are based, have not been raided.
