An ABC reporter who touched clothes and debris at the MH17 crash site has defended his actions, even after the report was removed from the ABC website for "re-editing".
Phil Williams said the items he touched were not part of an uncontaminated crime scene.
“I am guilty of picking up, touching a scarf on the ground and that’s because, there are piles of people’s belongings that have just been collected and dumped on the roadside, they’ve been picked through and so it’s not as though it’s a crime scene, an uncontaminated crime scene there," Williams told the ABC's PM on Monday night.
"It’s a very difficult scene to report on. Literally the evidence is everywhere you walk."
A spokesman said "the ABC has reminded journalists of responsibilities when reporting from an air crash scene such as MH17. A report has been re-edited to avoid any distress to our audience."
The footage of Williams touching the items was removed from the ABC website on Monday afternoon.
Kirsty Wright, an expert in crash forensics and disaster victim identification, said that maintaining the integrity of a crash site was crucial at the beginning of an investigation.
"In any forensic investigation you don't know what item, or items, are going to contain the most critical pieces of evidence.
"For this reason all items within a crime scene, no matter what they are or whether they seem relevant or not to the investigation at the time of recovery, should be treated the same.
"That is, they should not be handled or moved by people who aren't trained experts."
Items should also not be moved from where they fell because their context is "really, really valuable", she said.
She also said that forensic tests tend to be very sensitive, and that people who touch evidence could either leave traces of themselves or even remove trace residue from the item.
"If [evidence] has been badly contaminated, the results could be useless, or not reliable."
Sky News apologised on Monday after reporter Colin Brazier was shown touching items in a girl’s suitcase, picking up a set of keys, before he is heard saying, “we really shouldn’t be doing this”. The footage was broadcast on Sunday.
"Today whilst presenting from the site of the MH17 air crash Colin Brazier reflected on the human tragedy of the event and showed audiences the content of one of the victims' bags," a Sky News spokesperson said.
"Colin immediately recognised that this was inappropriate and said so on air. Both Colin and Sky News apologise profusely for any offence caused."
Forensics experts fear permanent interference to the crash site will hinder the investigation and the identification of bodies. There have been widespread reports of looters, military personnel and local workers traipsing all over the area.
“You can walk around the crash scene, there’s nobody stopping you,” Fairfax Media's chief correspondent, Paul McGeough, said. “Once you have one of these Mickey Mouse press passes that the rebel government - so called rebel government - will issue you with … you’re pretty well free to go where you want to go.
“At the railway station … where the train [holding the bodies of victims] is sitting at the platform, as I approached the platform a guy came at me with a gun ordering me to back off. I showed him my press pass, he smiled and said ‘come on in'.”
