The head of the ABC has defended its reporting of the Australia-Indonesia spy furore, saying the story is in the public interest.
"I think it was an important story that should have been told," ABC managing director Mark Scott told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Tuesday.
Mr Scott said, while the story might be embarrassing and could cause some short-term difficulties between the two countries, a debate was taking place all over the world on the reach of government spy agencies in the digital age.
"What information can be procured, what information can be shared - I think the story yesterday centrally went to that," he said.
"The test that we apply, really, is whether releasing this material is in the public interest."
Mr Scott's comments come after Indonesia called on Australia to apologise over claims Australian spies in 2009 targeted the mobile phone of Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, along with those of his wife and closest confidants.
Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Kesoema, flew out of Canberra on Tuesday on the orders of his government.
Mr Scott compared the story to the Australian Wheat Board scandal in the mid-2000s.
"It caused some damage to Australia in the short term, but I think we would say that that reporting was absolutely in the public interest and it was probably in the national interest in the long term," he said.
He said The Guardian was in possession of the documents for one day before providing them to the ABC.
The ABC's legal department then checked the public broadcaster's own stories before reporting.
"We didn't believe there was any legal impediment to publishing this material," he said.
Mr Scott said some parts of the documents - which were marked "top secret" - were redacted by the ABC.
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