The “Bushranger” column in last weekend’s Sunday Territorian contained a brief par entitled “ABC of censorship” about the failure of ABC Northern Territory to report on new developments in the unedifying tale of federal Indigenous affairs Minister Mal Brough’s interventions at the Mutitjulu community. Those developments include further revelations on the collusion between Minister Brough and his staffer Gregory Andrews, and the extent and nature of cooperation between the ABC and Andrews, later infamously portrayed as an anonymous “former youth worker”.

Federal Member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, issued a press release on 1 August referring in part to the statements from NT Police on a taskforce investigation that revealed Brough’s original allegations about pedophile rings operating at Mutitjulu to be wildly overstated. Snowdon was later interviewed for an ABC radio story that he fully expected to run. It didn’t, so Snowdon called ABC editor Shelaye Boothey to check on progress. What followed was a long and “vigorous discussion” that ended with Boothey hanging up on Snowdon after telling him the story was “not newsworthy”.