ABC boss David Anderson to be grilled over coverage of Israel-Hamas war and impartiality issues

The taxpayer-funded broadcaster will come under scrutiny at estimates this week, including over comments made by chair Kim Williams’ calling for impartiality by employees.

ABC managing director David Anderson is set to appear before Senate estimates on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman.

ABC managing director David Anderson will be grilled this week on a range of issues that have dominated the ABC in recent months including its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr Anderson will attend the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee on Thursday — the first time management at the broadcaster will face questioning in the Senate since new ABC chair Kim Williams took up his position in March. It is understood one of the key issues to be addressed will be the ABC’s coverage of the war in Israel, after the taxpayer-funded broadcaster received more than 3000 complaints in the first four months of the conflict.

About 58 per cent of complaints were relating to impartiality and bias, which editorial director Gavin Fang said were accusations of being “pro-Israeli or anti-Palestinian”.

In March, The Australian revealed that Jewish singer-songwriter Deborah Conway said the ABC had withdrawn its invitation for her to appear on its Victorian Evenings radio show because her outspoken support for Israel had made her too polarising.

After The Australian contacted the ABC about the cancelled interview, the broadcaster changed its tune and within two hours she was invited back onto the program the following week.

The ABC did not explain why her original interview had been cancelled.

Mr Anderson is also expected to be asked about comments made by Mr Williams in a podcast just weeks after he started at the ABC. “If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality, don’t work at the ABC,” Mr Williams said.

“I really think this is a very serious issue. This is a publicly funded organisation, it is a publicly accountable organisation, it is a respondent to legislation to the national parliament and it must always aspire to be as fair-minded in its work as it possibly can be.”

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the ABC would be quizzed about Mr William’s comments.

“Our Senators look forward to exploring those comments and what effect that has had on its reporting,” he said.

“The ABC is a taxpayer funded organisation which receives over $1bn a year. Of course it must be held accountable on the impartiality of its coverage.”

The ABC announced a review into racism in May last year after an outcry over the handling of Stan Grant's contentious comments on its broadcast of King Charles III’s coronation, which his employer said resulted in him being unfairly targeted with abuse. Grant departed the ABC in August and took up a role as Professor of Journalism at Monash University, and as Asia-Pacific director of the Denmark-based Constructive Institute.

He quit that position in March.

In February, The Australian revealed that consultations for the racism review, led by Indigenous lawyer Terri Janke, had not started and to date no details had been made public. It’s understood the committee will seek an update on the review’s progress, given more than 12 months have passed since it was launched.

Issues relating to the use of social media will likely be raised, including the fallout involving Sydney-based reporter Jamelle Wells, who is the subject of an internal investigation after she advocated to stop the culling of wild brumbies in NSW.

She voiced her anger about the issue on social media and offered activists advice on the best tactics to get favourable news coverage.

SBS, the media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the office of the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant, will also be quizzed on Thursday.

Originally published as ABC boss David Anderson to be grilled over coverage of Israel-Hamas war and impartiality issues