Australia

This touches on an important issue, but it is an appalling failure of an article from the ABC. I have just submitted my complaint to the ABC through their complaints form. Here is the text of my complaint, if anyone else wants to join in. (Please use your own words, but feel free to take inspiration from me.)

This article about a recently-announced law in the Queensland Parliament is woefully inadequate at representing a diversity of perspectives and maintaining impartial reporting, one of the most important principles of the ABC Code of Practice.

It fails to seek the input of any pro-Palestine groups, such as Justice for Palestine Magan-djin or the Jewish Council of Australia.

It fails to note the context in which phrases such as “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea are used”—the ongoing genocide by the state of Israel of Palestinian people. Or to explain the meaning of these phrases as meant by the people using it—resistance against the genocide and support for the human rights of the Palestinian people.

Instead, the article completely implicitly accepts the false premise of the Government's position: that these are terrorist phrases, that criticism of Israel is antisemitic, and that the opinions of zionists are the only ones worth considering.

Ned Hammond's article quotes the Opposition's tepid support for the policy, but not the voices of those actually affected. In so doing, it fails ABC Standards 4.1 “Gather and present news and information with due impartiality”, 4.2 “Present a diversity of perspectives...so that no significant strand of thought or belief within the community is knowingly excluded or disproportionately represented”, and 4.5 “Do not unduly favour one perspective over another.”

This is an appalling failure to represent the voices of anti-genocide, anti-zionist protestors, and is yet another in a string of failures of the ABC to resist pressure from the pro-Israel lobby.