Police officials swooped down on the Melbourne office of The Age, owned and operated by Fairfax Media, following allegations that one story ran by the newspaper utilized information hacked from sensitive files kept by the Australian Labor Party.

The raid was confirmed Thursday by Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood who admitted in a statement that "this morning a team of six Victorian police arrived at The Age at Media House in Melbourne."

The police came with a search warrant and were given access to files by The Age reporters, the Fairfax statement said.

Senior journalists, including The Age editor Paul Ramadge, were interviewed by investigators while the paper's legal representatives watched closely the whole process, according to a report by Agence France Presse (AFP).

"The police have served search warrants and are presently conducting searches of electronic and hard copy files in relation to The Age's reporting of information on an ALP database prior to last year's Victorian election," Fairfax said.

In the story it published, The Age has alleged that private data from thousands of Australian voters were maintained by the Labor Party and can be easily accessed the campaign workers.

The information includes health and financial data of individuals with their names and addresses plus their political leanings, The Age report said.

An official of Victoria Police interviewed by AFP revealed that the search was conducted based on reports that "personal details of Victorians were electronically accessed by a media outlet via a confidential political party database without authorisation."

Ramadge, however, flatly rejected the accusations and insisted that the information was provided to The Age voluntarily by a source he described as "a whistleblower with legitimate concerns about the content of the database."

"This was a story with significant public interest - a powerful, highly influential organisation collecting private information on voters without their knowledge and giving campaign workers, including, it seems, volunteers, access to it," Ramadge was reported by AFP as saying.

He added that the police action, while may be warranted, could unwillingly expose the source who gave The Age access to the information, a scenario he stressed would run counter with media ethics and professional trust.

"If the sources for this report are identified through the police searches, even inadvertently, it will be a dark day for journalism," The Age editor said.

On his part, Hywood said that Fairfax is cooperating with police authorities on their investigation while insisting that the media firm is behind its journalists all the way.

"I am completely confident that they investigated and reported this story in an entirely proper way," the Fairfax chief was quoted by AFP as saying in declaring his support for the paper's story.

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