[Media-watch] Australian official says she was fired over Iraq briefings - AP - 11/04/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-aussie11apr11,1,2852820.story?coll=la-headlines-world

THE WORLD
Australian Official Says She Was Fired Over Iraq Briefings
>From Associated Press

April 11, 2004

MELBOURNE, Australia - A senior Australian defense advisor said she was
fired because she refused to write media briefing notes for the government
that lied about the threat of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

In an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne, Jane
Errey said she took leave rather than peddle propaganda about Iraq.

"Anything I was doing with respect to the war was making me uncomfortable,"
she told the newspaper.

"Then to have to brief the minister and fundamentally give him - even though
I didn't write it - lines of propaganda that I didn't believe with respect
to the war was beyond what I was prepared to do. I wouldn't lie or mislead
the public."

When the government sent 2,000 troops to take part in last year's U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq, the threat of Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass
destruction was one of the main justifications.

Defense Minister Robert Hill told television's Nine Network that Errey was
fired last week because of a "management issue" that had nothing to do with
Iraq briefings.

"It has nothing to do with work she may have done in the past," Hill told
the network.