Commentators especially in the Murdoch press and senior managers at the ABC are at odds over the corporation's decision to publish documents leaked by the former American CIA employee Edward Snowden. Both sides cite the 'public interest' in arguing, respectively, against and for the decision to publish.
The Murdoch side says the ABC acted contrary to the public interest by damaging bilateral relations with Indonesia. The ABC says it upheld the democratic principles of free speech and the public's right to know. Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have used the same arguments when challenged about the consequences of their actions; that both are now under the protection of countries criticised for their infringements of free speech points up the hazards of presuming to occupy this particular moral high ground.
This is not the first time that the ABC's reporting of matters related to Indonesia has caused diplomatic ructions. In 1980 the ABC's Jakarta correspondent Warwick Beutler was expelled from Indonesia mainly in retaliation for Radio Australia news broadcasts about the occupation of East Timor. The ban was not lifted until 1991.
In evaluating the Indonesian response to the ABC's report on apparent attempts by the then-named Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) to listen into phone conversations by President Yudhoyono and his wife, this background is relevant and insufficiently acknowledged in recent commentaries.
The Indonesian leadership's sensitivity to insult, particularly involving any perceived interference by an external power in their nation's internal affairs, lies at the heart of the matter — more so than judgments about the Australian 'public interest'.
It is, I would suggest, not so much the fact that the DSD targeted Yudiyono that offends the Indonesian government (after all, it is a commonplace of intelligence gathering that you seek out the highest possible source), as having the fact shoved in their faces. In the lead-up to the presidential election in July, the head of state has been made to look foolish. His ruling party will also be worried that the contents of private conversations might find their way into the hands of domestic opponents.
The strength of Jakarta's retaliatory measures should be assessed in terms of these factors.
The ABC exists primarily for its Australian audience (the services of Radio Australia and Australia Network being the exceptions), and it must reflect the values and serve the needs of Australians. I doubt, however, whether most Australians would consider that they needed to know about this specific DSD