The Federal Court has dismissed a case that questioned the validity of police warrants used by the AFP to raid media outlets.

In June last year, Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers searched ABC computer systems for files relating to reports known as “The Afghan Files”; uncovering alleged unlawful killings by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The ABC had launched a case arguing the warrant AFP used was “legally unreasonable”, and included search terms that did not create any meaningful limitation on the scope.

The ABC argued the decision to approve the warrant did not regard the implied freedom of political communication.

Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham has now dismissed the case and ordered the ABC to pay the costs of the other parties.

ABC managing director David Anderson described the raid as “an attempt to intimidate journalists for doing their jobs”.

“This is at odds with our expectation that we live in an open and transparent society,” he said.

“We are not saying journalists should be above the law, we're saying the public's right to know should be a factor that is taken into account — and legitimate journalism should not be criminalised.”

The AFP argued that the terms of the warrant showed it was focused on alleged offences concerning the provision and receipt of the leaked documents.

Justice Wendy Abraham ruled the conditions of the warrant provided “sufficient particularity in the offence descriptions”.

“The applicant's primary submission is based on a consideration of words and phrases in the conditions in isolation, devoid of their context,” she wrote in the judgment.

“It is of no assistance to consider the breadth of individual words and phrases in the warrant in isolation, as material must satisfy all three conditions before it can be seized pursuant to the warrant.”

The Afghan Files reporting was based on leaked Defence documents. A whistleblower involved in the stories faces separate legal proceedings.

Additionally, there are still two journalists that face possible criminal charges.