Sunday 15 September 8:45pm
Heston Russell
Spotlight interrogates the relentless smear campaign launched by the ABC against Special Forces Soldier Heston Russell. He won his defamation case, but will the national broadcaster ever admit fault?
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7NEWS Spotlight – Heston Russell: War hero or criminal?
Special investigation this Sunday at 8.45pm on Channel 7 and 7plus
Former Australian special forces commando Heston Russell knows the meaning of conflict.
With a proud lineage of military relatives, he enlisted in the army at 17 and rose through the ranks to become a highly decorated officer with more than 10,000 hours of leadership in combat operations, including four combat deployments to Afghanistan and a fifth to Iraq to fight against ISIS.
He proved fearless in battle, iron-willed in his personal convictions and prepared to put it all on the line.
As a soldier, Russell led our troops into countless battles and when he retired, he kept fighting. He campaigned for the royal commission into veteran suicide, built charities for soldiers and even ran for a seat in the Queensland senate.
But his toughest fight came several years after his discharge, when Russell became the target of a relentless attack launched by the investigations unit of the ABC alleging that he was the worst kind of soldier – leaving a trail of destruction in Afghanistan and involved in fraudulent behaviour back home.
Russell’s battleground this time: the Australian Federal Court, where he spent almost three years fending off the ABC’s allegations of war crimes.
So, is he a war hero or war criminal?
Award-wining journalist Liam Bartlett presents this 7NEWS Spotlight special investigation.
“Heston’s experience is at the heart of how our veteran community has been so appallingly treated and ultimately, let down,” said Bartlett.
“When you dive deeper into his story, you can only wonder if others have also suffered from damaging assumptions and allegations. It’s an incredibly important discussion because those who serve our country deserve a lot better.”
You come after my newsroom, I’ll come after yours.
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Viewers didn’t seem too engaged based on ratings drop.
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Heston Russell demands meeting with Kim Williams amid doctored footage allegations
Heston Russell has written directly to ABC chair Kim Williams demanding a meeting following shocking allegations that the public broadcaster published doctored online audio in a news report depicting an Australian soldier firing multiple shots at unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
The former November platoon commander has also said journalists behind the story that contained the offending footage should be held accountable, despite the ABC saying Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson had “no role in the production and editing of the online video”.
Justin Steven’s - ABC News Director:
“Just last week it was brought to our attention by Channel Seven that a video clip in an online story from two years ago had an error. A preliminary inspection suggests a section of audio was incorrectly edited.
“We removed the video and are still looking into how this happened. Once we have the full facts we will determine the appropriate response.
“Until we have clarity on how it occurred, I won’t be making further comments about it, so as to not pre-empt that.”
7NEWS Spotlight: Inside Australia’s toughest drug rehab centre
Special investigation this Sunday at 8.45pm on Channel 7 and 7plus
The epidemic of drug abuse in Australia is showing no signs of slowing, with two million Australians battling addictions and the number of fatal overdoses almost doubling in two decades.
Shalom House is the fastest-growing rehab centre in the country.
Its controversial founder, Peter Lyndon-James, is an ex-con and rehabilitated addict who claims he has the answer to Australia’s worsening drug crisis and the cure for all kinds of addicts.
He says his tough-love, labour-based unconventional service is helping men, women and – increasingly – children to rebuild their lives. And Shalom House is overflowing. By any measure, there are just too many residents.
But not everyone is a fan of his methods. Some say Shalom House, which has earned the reputation as Australia’s toughest rehab centre, is like a cult and that residents are really inmates in a religious prison.
Now, in a 7NEWS Spotlight exclusive, Peter Lyndon-James and Shalom House have granted access-all-areas to Seven’s crime reporter Ben Harvey.
Also on the show, after the Albanese Government’s $243 million crackdown on vapes, has it actually worked? Eight months into the national ban on all illegal vape imports, 7NEWS Spotlight takes to the streets to discover we are still far from busting the underworld hold on this crooked industry.
ABC managing director David Anderson today ordered an independent review into a 2022 news report depicting an Australian soldier firing multiple shots at unarmed civilians in Afghanistan, as the result of the Spotlight episode last week.
From tonight’s Media Watch
I haven’t seen screen icon Jack Thompson being interviewed in a while. Am really looking forward to this one.
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He recently voiced an NRL promo for Channel Nine before the season started earlier this year i believe. But the last interview i think he did was for Australian Story back in 2019. Will be watching this one of course.
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7NEWS Spotlight: Australian Drug Wars
Special investigation this Sunday at 8.50pm on Channel 7 and 7plus
Gangland criminals once eliminated their drug rivals quietly, preferring to draw as little attention as possible. However, in recent years, everything has changed dramatically.
With the shocking transformation of organised crime, shifting from discreet eliminations to technically sophisticated and audacious public attacks, headlines of drive-by shootings and kidnappings have become the new norm.
The crime syndicates exploit cutting-edge technology to evade law enforcement, highlighted by the recent dismantling of an encrypted communications network known as Ghost.
In an eye-opening investigation, this Sunday at 8.50pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, 7NEWS Spotlight reveals the alarming rise of violence happening in plain sight among Australia’s drug gangs.
This special investigation features insights from AFP Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield, Victoria Police’s former Homicide Detective Charlie Bezzina, NSW Police’s former Detective Superintendent Deborah Wallace, former NSW Detective Michael Kennedy and The Daily Telegraph’s Senior Crime Reporter Josh Hanrahan.
As the stakes soar into the billions, 7NEWS Spotlight examines how gangs have become increasingly brazen, endangering innocent lives in their quest for dominance, featuring a harrowing incident from late 2021 when a public shooting occurred outside a childcare centre.
And don’t miss a very special exclusive interview with the legendary Aussie actor Jack Thompson.
Jack sits down with 7NEWS Spotlight ’s Michael Usher for his most revealing interview yet, reflecting on his health battle and that iconic Cleo nude centrefold that shocked Australia. The interview also features appearances by Ita Buttrose and Bryan Brown
The Daily Telegraph reports that Seven yesterday submitted an application to suppress the entire statement of claim lodged in the Federal Court of Australia by Amelia Saw. It is also understood the statement names several high-profile Seven employees as allegedly engaging in behaviour that would further damage the network’s reputation. Justice Nye Perram has now set a date for the suppression order to be argued.
7NEWS Spotlight: Prince George – A King for the future
This Sunday at 8.50pm on Channel 7 and 7plus
In just a few weeks, King Charles and Queen Camilla will be down under for their Royal visit. But as Australians celebrate the man who waited decades to be monarch, spare a thought for his grandson, 11-year-old Prince George.
The prince has already had to grow up fast among much controversy in the Royal Family, mourning the loss of his great grandmother Queen Elizabeth, and his mother, Prince Kate, recovering from cancer.
Who is the boy who will be King one very distant day from now? And how does one learn to take on the most exclusive job in the world?
In this special documentary airing at 8.50pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, 7NEWS Spotlight uncovers the secrets of Prince George’s royal upbringing, including his education, the Royal rituals he must learn and how his modern upbringing is steering the Royal Family into a new era.
With exclusive access to those close to him, 7NEWS Spotlight’s Sarah Greenhalgh is in London to chart Prince George’s journey to the throne – from meeting Barack Obama in his dressing gown to becoming the youngest future King to have an official role in a coronation.
While Prince George’s reign may still be decades away, it is evident that the monarchy he will inherit is evolving.
Tune in to 7NEWS Spotlight to witness a King in the making.
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7NEWS Spotlight: The Brave Ones
Meet Damien Mander and Zimbabwe’s all-female anti-poaching rangers
Fifteen years ago, 7NEWS Spotlight reporter Liam Bartlett met former special commando Damien Mander when he had just returned from the Iraq War with a dream of fighting a different battle: combating endemic poachers.
This Sunday at 9.00pm on Channel 7 and 7plus, Liam goes deep into the African wilderness to reunite with the Aussie veteran who is saving the continent’s critically endangered wildlife with an all-female army of rangers.
Damien sold up everything he owned to establish the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, and his unconventional journey has led him to recruit a ground-breaking all-female unit of rangers known as Akashinga, meaning “The Brave Ones” in Zimbabwe’s Shona dialect.
The heavily armed local women, often mothers, patrol areas the size of small countries to catch the poachers and stop illegal operations. Not only do these women protect wildlife, they also change the trajectory of their communities by passing on 90% of their earnings to their families.
Damien, who is eliminating the community’s reliance on money from trophy hunting and illegal poaching with the support of his rangers, said: “When we started [the Foundation], we thought if it actually works, let’s create opportunities for those who need it the most. Many of them were survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, single mothers and abandoned wives.
“What we didn’t realise is that we were getting the toughest in society. Anything we threw at them was nothing compared to what they came from or most importantly stood to go back to.”
Also, this week, 7NEWS Spotlight reveals why parts of San Francisco have become a no-go zone. The iconic city is overrun by homeless people and violent crime, fuelled by a deadly drug addiction.
On assignment for 7NEWS Spotlight, 7NEWS US Bureau Chief David Woiwod meets the unlikely Australians in the middle of the turmoil who say what they are witnessing should serve as a dire warning for us all back home.
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