‘Fake news’ - ABC busted over phoney terror raid 🚓

0:00Sydney's best breakfast. Well, this is embarrassing. The Australian Federal Police are accusing the ABC of broadcasting fake news again. Former star reporter Mummoud Fizzal, he's been accused of making up a police raid that never happened. Fizzal is a former member of a Baikigang. He joined the National Broadcaster in 2021, covering crime and underworld issues. And in his first report at the ABC, Fizzal claimed he was caught up in a dramatic police raid involving the AFP. He was with a man who was facing sentencing for supporting his brother with links to al Qaeda. And on the morning of the court's showdown, Fizzal claimed the AFP burst through the front door. I woke to the sound of windows being smashed in.

1:00Armed police officers from the joint counterterrorism team were raiding the house with their weapons drawn. Officers stormed into the room I was staying in and shouted at me not to move. They quickly handcuffed me and pulled me onto the floor in my underwear. I protested that I was a journalist but I was told to keep quiet. Hmm, sounded dramatic, but it ain't true. The Australian federal police have taken another look at this report in light of other claims of fake news spread by Marmoud Fizzal. They now say the AFP has no knowledge of this search warrant and what it relates to. The AFP did not and would not plan any overt activity to stop a journalist. And the AFP say they told Marmoud Fizzal before his story went to air. There is absolutely no record of the raid, but the story went to air anyway on the ABC program background briefing. It suspected that the so-called counterterrorism raid by the AFP was in fact a drug raid

2:05by Queensland police. Marmoud Fizzal has told the Australian these events occurred almost ten years ago. If my understanding of which unit conducted the operation or what it related to was wrong, I'm prepared to correct that. Well, it's quite a misunderstanding. How does a journalist get mixed up between the AFP and police from Queensland? And what made him confuse a drug raid with a counterterrorism operation? Maybe the terror raid made for a more exciting story. Or Marmoud Fizzal was about a biker than a journalist and just misunderstood. Either way, the dodgy report is still available to listen to on ABC platforms. And the national broadcaster is refusing to answer questions about it. We've invited the ABC boss Hugh Marx onto our show recently to chat about this issue and a range of others. His office tells us he's unavailable at the moment.

3:05And we're hoping that Hugh Marx is going to come in again soon, like he did a few months ago, to discuss any issues facing the ABC. Because when Hugh started in the role, he explained that he had a duty to answer these types of questions. So hopefully we'll catch up with Hugh Marx soon.