Letter received from my local Member for Pearce. I wholly agree with the sentiment you have expressed in your correspondence regarding the irresponsible reporting of this matter by the ABC. Today, in a press conference, the Minister for Defence made the Government’s position very clear when he publicly said: “We now know that the original commentary on the ABC was not correct. The good men and women of the Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, have been maliciously maligned by the ABC and I am very dissatisfied with the weasel words of apology that have been floated around by senior management of the ABC. Now let me just put this in context. For the last four years Customs and Navy have actually saved thousands of lives on the water between Australia and Indonesia, between Christmas Island and Java. Nine Navy personnel were blown up on SIEV 36. The Coroner said that those people deliberately detonated the boat. My people have been spat on, abused, treated like servants and have endured all of that to save more than 1,000 lives, and yet they have also had to endure the horror of fishing out hundreds of people floating dead in the water. I am absolutely sick to the stomach that this Australian iconic news agency would attack the Navy in the way that it has. The Minister for Immigration, who has done a magnificent job, has said everything and more that can be said about the appalling commentary that the ABC has mounted against the Royal Australian Navy. Let’s get the record straight: They are heroes, they have done a courageous - laden with integrity - difficult task thrust upon them by probably one of the greatest policy failures Australia has ever seen. I want to stand here and say thank you to them, they have done a magnificent job.” On Wednesday, when travelling throughout my electorate, I also made my views publicly known regarding the ABC’s handling of this matter. My view is that the ABC has a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial in its news and current affairs programs according to the recognised standards of objective journalism. Its reporting of this matter fell well short of that standard. The ABC itself notes these were allegations worthy of further investigations - these further investigations should have been properly undertaken before the ABC published them in circumstances where it accepts, as I have already noted, the imprecise reporting was capable of giving rise to the perception the ABC endorsed the dubious claims. What the Government that I am part of has sought, on behalf of the navy personnel who have been maligned as a consequence of this reporting, is an apology from the ABC. On 5 February the Minister for Communications acknowledged, on national radio, that “This was a very serious allegation to accuse the Navy of having tortured asylum seekers – and yes I know they said they weren’t accusing them and that they were just reporting what others were saying – but they gave it a lot of credence and credibility. That’s very serious. So I think an apology would be appropriate but again it’s not my call I’m the Communications Minster but I am not the Editor-in-Chief of the ABC.” Ultimately the Government has little recourse beyond seeking an apology due to the fact that the ABC is an independent national broadcaster. Internal ABC programming and editorial decisions are the responsibility of the ABC Board and Executive. One of the ABC’s statutory obligations is to be accurate and impartial in its news and current affairs programs according to the recognised standards of objective journalism. While the ABC has editorial independence, it is accountable to the Parliament through a Charter and appearances before Parliamentary Committees. This is the extent of the ABC’s accountability to the Government. Accordingly, whilst Minister Turnbull has indicated his view that an apology would be appropriate (a view that I agree wholly with), there is no power for him to direct the ABC to undertake any further action. I, like the Coalition Government, will do what I can to support our Australian Defence Force and its members. Thank you for bringing your views to my attention. Regards The Hon Christian Porter MP Federal Member for Pearce 490 Great Eastern Highway, GreenmountWA 6056 | PO Box 1005, MidlandWA 6936 T (08) 9294 3222 | F (08) 9294 2888 House of Representatives Suite R1 18, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600 T (02) 6277 4275 | F (02) 6277 2231
Posted on: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 07:33:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015