‘Huge questions to answer for’: ABC lashed over allegations it doctored footage recorded by Australian soldier

The Coalition says the ABC has some “huge questions to answer” after the national broadcaster was accused of doctoring a soldier’s helmet footage in an investigative piece on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. The 15-second clip aired by the ABC in 2022 appears to show an Australian soldier firing six shots at two men from a helicopter. But the ex-special forces commander whose helmet captured the footage in 2012, Heston Russell, has accused the ABC of adding in extra gunshots. Mr Russell was engaged in a separate defamation case with the broadcaster when it published the report. He told Sky News on Monday he had to “sit on my hands and be quiet” until the court battle, which he won, was over. “I think the key part to note here is that, one, they doctored the footage,” he said. “But two, we actually then provided them with the whole, raw helmet cam footage, because they took 15 seconds and said this was me and my guy shooting unarmed civilians.” He said the full footage showed them getting out of the helicopter and getting ambushed while pursuing an insurgent. “So there’s a whole narrative here, not just them editing gunshots, that the ABC needs to be accountable for,” Mr Russell said. “There needs to be a parliamentary inquiry into the investigations unit because they have now been found to spend taxpayer funds to doctor footage and allegedly try and frame special forces veterans from combat in Afghanistan.” Channel 7 first published that the clip had been altered. A spokesperson for the ABC told NewsWire it “removed the online video where an error has been identified”. “The ABC is seeking more information on how this occurred,” the spokesperson said. They added that ABC journalists Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson, who were involved in the original reporting, “had no role in the production and editing of the online video.” “Any suggestion that they have acted inappropriately or unethically is completely false,” the spokesperson said. Senior Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash called on the ABC to explain itself. “The ABC have some huge questions to answer if the report is true,” she told Sky News on Monday. “It is the Australian taxpayer that funds the ABC. So quite frankly, on behalf of the Australian taxpayer, I would like to see the ABC standing up in front of the cameras and explaining exactly what has happened.” Defence Minister Richard Marles has not yet commented on the matter.