Climate activists fear they may be imprisoned after the ABC said it would hand footage from a Four Corners program of them protesting Woodside's Burrup Peninsula gas project to WA Police.

Investigators on Thursday demanded the ABC breach the confidentiality of its sources and provide the unedited video to the Four Corners special titled Escalation, which aired on October 9 and highlighted the clashing interests over the WA gas project.

WA Police applied through the courts for the footage via the 'Order to Produce' provisions of the WA Criminal Investigations Act, which compels organisations to comply.

The unedited footage to be handed to police includes the planned protest and subsequent arrest of activists outside Woodside Energy CEO Meg O'Neill's house.

The ABC's decision to relinquish the footage, which would break the journalist's code to never reveal sources, came as the Northern Territory government sent a letter of complaint over allegations Four Corners crew breached ethical journalism standards and jeopardised community safety while filming recently in the Top End.

Disrupt Burrup Hub, the activist group at the centre the program, condemned the ABC's decision to surrender the material.

Campaigner Desmond Blurton, who is also the deputy chair of the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee, called the plan to release of the footage a "a deep betrayal".

"I was filmed by Four Corners on multiple days as a part of the program they produced about police repression of climate protest in WA," Mr Blurton said in a statement released by the protest group.

"I did not consent at any point to have my footage handed over to WA Police.

"I am deeply concerned that the ABC may cause the imprisonment of vulnerable people by surrendering source material to police.

"Given that I work on a number of other social issues affecting my First Nations community with other campaigners involved with Disrupt Burrup Hub, it is quite possible that confidential discussions that have no relevance to the Four Corners story were still captured by the ABC.

"I do not consent to WA police being given any of this footage, and if the ABC hand over any footage it will be a deep betrayal of people who trusted the ABC to give them a voice."

On Thursday anti-Woodside protesters had gathered at ABC studios in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth amid fears the national broadcaster would reveal its confidential sources.

Both the MEAA and ABC staff urged the broadcaster not to hand over the footage, with managing director David Anderson adamant the broadcaster "never have and never will" reveal their sources.

He confirmed in Senate Estimates this week the ABC was in negotiations with the police about what they might give them, while still protecting those sources.

Disrupt Burrup Hub's media adviser Jesse Noakes, who is currently on trial for refusing to obey a data access order without reasonable excuse, said he received personal undertakings from the ABC that multiple sources - who participated in the program on the specific guarantee they would not be identified - would be protected.

"Should the ABC surrender any Four Corners footage to WA police, if any of these people face legal liability or criminal prosecution that will be entirely on the ABC," he said on Thursday.

"I hope the ABC management appreciate the full implications of that."

The MEAA said the decision by the ABC jeopardised public interest journalism by degrading trust in the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.

The union for Australian journalists has previously said it was alarmed by reports police had demanded the footage.

It said the order was a direct threat to press freedom and the ability of investigative journalists to cover important stories.

The Burrup Peninsula plant is in proximity to traditional rock art at Murujuga, which has its UNESCO Heritage Status currently pending.

Disrupt Burrup Hub claims Woodside's operations in the area and its proposed expansion form the biggest new fossil fuel project in the country and could produce billion of tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2070.

It has carried out a series of actions against Woodside this year include the release of stench gas at its Perth headquarters in June, forcing the evacuation of about 2000 staff.

Woodside firmly believes its climate targets — a 15 per cent reduction by 2025, 30 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050 — are in line with meeting global emissions reduction needs.

Appearing in Senate Estimates on Tuesday, ABC Managing Director David Anderson had told senators the sources integral to the Four Corners footage would not be released.

"We've always protected our sources, we always have, we always will," Mr Anderson said.

"We could not comply with the full order to produce because otherwise it would have captured confidential sources, that's what we've been negotiating with WA Police."