Introduction
In 1954, an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) operative added another file to Rohan Rivett's voluminous dossier. Rivett was, at the time, the editor of Rupert Murdoch's beloved Adelaide News. The memo read:
Refer to Q report, 17 October 1952.
RIVETT is the editor in chief of the Adelaide News. He has covered a number of important world events, including the recent Indo- China Cease- fire negotiations in Geneva and the SEATO conference in Manila.
[Redacted title] which is owned by [redacted name] recently volunteered his opinion that RIVETT is ‘Red’, also that he does not mind engaging staff who have ‘similar pink tendencies as himself’.
It is noticeable that the ‘News’ does at times print articles and editorials of an extreme left- wing nature.
RIVETT came to South Australia from Victoria about five or six years ago. He is believed to have been twice married and there is a vague allegation that this first wife ‘was a Communist’.
In view of these allegations from several widely separated sources, it is requested that any available background information concerning RIVETT be forwarded to this office. (Rohan RIVETT, memo for Headquarters, ASIO from DV O'Leary, 9 December 1954)
The file note conveyed the common elements of many journalists’ security reports: the conspiratorial anxieties about communism and ‘pink’ ideas, morality, journalist identity and the power of the press. It also reveals a pattern and commitment to continual monitoring and a determination to silence the press regarded as ‘suspect’ – no matter how nebulous the evidence.
This chapter will examine the early surveillance of Australian journalists between 1916 and the late 1960s, integrating the experiences of Rivett, Godfrey Blunden, Sam White and little- known members of the Australian Journalists Association (AJA). The suspicion about journalists peaked at the height of the Cold War, when ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) ran what is termed ‘Spoiling Operations’ in the press. This involved editors and journalists running stories by ASIO based on security information leaked to newspaper editors, and later radio and television management.