ABC admits video of Australian soldiers firing from helicopter in Afghanistan was ‘incorrectly edited’

ABC news director Justin Stevens. The ABC removed the video and told Seven’s Spotlight that Jo Puccini, award-winning reporter Mark Willacy and reporter Josh Robertson ‘had no role in the production and editing of the online video’. Photograph: Emily Jagot Kulich

ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, has admitted a video clip of Australian troops firing from a helicopter in Afghanistan was “incorrectly edited” and has been removed two years after it was posted online.

“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,” Stevens told the Melbourne Press Club. “A preliminary inspection suggests a section of audio was incorrectly edited.