Wikileaks has revealed a secret court order in Australia to censor reporting on a massive, years-long political bribery and corruption scandal in the country involving its central bank and several international leaders. Described as a “superinjunction,” the order blocks reporting on the order itself, as well as the content of the investigation, in a case of censorship that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called “the worst in living memory.”
Calling it “the largest high-level corruption case in Australia and the region,” the media outlet on Wednesday published an order by the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne that blocks news agencies from reporting on a multi-million dollar bribery investigation into subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Even now, Australian media is prevented from publishing the documents or its contents.
“[The] Australian government is not just gagging the Australian press, it is blindfolding the Australian public,” Assange, who is Australian, said after the release of the documents. “This is not simply a question of the Australian government failing to give this international corruption case the public scrutiny it is due. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop must explain why she is threatening every Australian with imprisonment in an attempt to cover up an embarrassing corruption scandal involving the Australian government.”
The court claimed that secrecy is necessary to prevent damage to Australia’s relations with other countries and preserve the reputations of the high-ranking international officials. It also claimed that publicizing the case may put “national security” at risk, a familiar argument from many governments fighting to hide evidence of their misdeeds.
RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia are accused of paying off high-ranking officials from 1999 to 2004 to secure the supply of Australian-style polymer bank notes to the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries.