Latest / The Front / ABC boss admits ‘bad mistake’ on Gaza ‘starving babies’ report

Transcript

ABC boss admits ‘bad mistake’ on Gaza ‘starving babies’ report · The Front

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Today's Biggest News from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. The ABC has admitted it made
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a quote bad mistake by repeatedly quoting a UN spokesman's
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  Speaker 1: inaccurate claim that fourteen thousand babies were at risk of
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: imminent death by starvation in Gaza. Top editorial brass are
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: appearing at the Royal Commission into Anti Semitism and Social Cohesion,
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  Speaker 1: where Council assisting Richard Lancaster asked the ABC's editorial director,
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  Speaker 1: Gavin Fang, if the broadcaster deliberately buried its correction to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that mistaken statistic.
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  Speaker 2: Another criticism that was leveled is that there's a pattern
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  Speaker 2: of prominent reporting of a motive incidents which were overstated
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  Speaker 2: or wrong, and corrections being made much less prominently and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: much later than when the correction ought to have been made.
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  Speaker 2: And the statistic was first broadcast by the ABC on
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: News Breakfast at six am on the twenty first of
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  Speaker 2: My twenty twenty five. Yes, and the Ombardsman found that
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  Speaker 2: it had been apparent since three hours earlier three am
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  Speaker 2: Sydney time, that the static statistic was not accurate. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: that's great, and it was first corrected by the ABC
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  Speaker 2: at four pm on the afternoon briefing program. Yes, you
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  Speaker 2: agree that correction would not have been apparent to many
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  Speaker 2: viewers of the News Breakfast program.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, it was a bad mistake. The correction came on
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  Speaker 3: the News channel, the same channel that hosts News Breakfast
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  Speaker 3: later in the afternoon. Ordinarily, we would try to do
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  Speaker 3: one of two things, try to get a correction as
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: soon as possible, but also do a correction to the
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  Speaker 3: same or similar audience, so the New Breakfast audience. In
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  Speaker 3: this case, the correction was done on the News channel
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  Speaker 3: that afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: The government's antisemitism on Voydgillian Siegel has criticized the ABC,
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  Speaker 1: Ombardsman and the Australian Communications and Medial Authority for the
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  Speaker 1: way they policed editorial standards at the ABC and SBS.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Giving evidence to the Royal Commission, Seagal said the ABC
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: needed an oversight body to look at perceptions of bias
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  Speaker 1: over all the national broadcasters, Middle East and antisemitism reporting,
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  Speaker 1: rather than complaints on individual stories. A coalition of Jewish
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  Speaker 1: groups has questioned whether the ABC has given sufficient guidance
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  Speaker 1: to reporters who quote may have different ideas of what
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  Speaker 1: antisemitism is. That's after the National broadcaster declined to use
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism. The IRA
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: definition holds that criticism of actions by the State of
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Israel should not be extended to all Jews or to
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  Speaker 1: individual Israelis. That definition, though, is controversial, and critics say
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it limits criticism of Israel. Here's Gavin Fang again.
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  Speaker 3: The IRA definition of the examples in the definition in
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  Speaker 3: particular are contested, and it is important for us to
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  Speaker 3: maintain not just our independence, but the perception of independence.
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  Speaker 1: Royal Commission of Virginia Belle questioned Jillian Siegel's push for
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  Speaker 1: an external broadcast regulator for the ABC and SPS, suggesting
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  Speaker 1: it could hamper trust in the public broadcasters.
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  Speaker 4: Looking at the ABC, its statutory structure is one way
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  Speaker 4: of creating an entity that is independent, and one can
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  Speaker 4: see in terms of developing public trust in a broadcaster
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  Speaker 4: that if it's independent and controlled ultimately by an independent board,
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  Speaker 4: that they give some confidence.
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  Speaker 1: Check out that story live right now at the Australian
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: dot com dot au and come back to the front
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: first thing in the morning for a sensational dispute going
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: on in New South Wales between judges, lawyers and the
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  Speaker 1: state's top prosecutor. That's right here Friday morning,