Activists sit on panel that censors Australian commercial TV
A REFUGEE activist who says Aussie pilots should refuse to deport illegal immigrants and a feminist who argues for the erotic potential of breastfeeding are among the exclusive group that decides what commercials we should be allowed to see.
NSW
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A REFUGEE activist who says Aussie pilots should refuse to deport illegal immigrants and a feminist who argues for the erotic potential of breastfeeding are among the exclusive group that decides what commercials we should be allowed to see.
Mohammad Al-Khafaji and Sydney University gender theories academic Dr Fiona Giles are members of the 19-strong Ad Standards Community Panel, which the The Daily Telegraph revealed this month was behind a politically correct push to ban gender stereotypes in commercials. Advertising agencies say they spend thousands of dollars in legal fees defending content in negotiations with the panel.
Mr Al-Khafaji, who is also secretary of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia and was appointed to the Ad Standards panel in 2016, has been campaigning for Qantas to stop its work for the government flying illegal immigrants out of the country.
“As a former refugee, I ask you to refuse deporting people seeking asylum back to harm,” he wrote on social media last week.
“Virgin Australia, you can show your leadership too. Let’s do this and join a global movement.”
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Ad Standards CEO Fiona Jolly said panellists who had strong views would recuse themselves from any “conflicts of interest” but declined to provide details.
“If someone has a conflict of interest with a particular advertiser or the content of ad then they don’t participate in the decision,” she said.
“If it became a situation where a community panel member was having to be declaring a conflict of interest for more ads than not then obviously that person would not be of any use to the panel going forward … It is very much something we review very regularly.
“We are very confident that any conflict of interests are being declared.”
Ms Jolly declined to reveal which decisions Mr Al-Khafaji had judged.
“When we recruit, one of the most important things is to figure out where each person’s views are on topics,” she said. “If it turns out someone is not fulfilling the role in the way they should be we move them along.”
Meanwhile, Dr Giles was recruited in 2013. In 2008 she wrote a paper linking breastfeeding to sexuality.
“This chapter argues that the acknowledgment of pleasure in relation to lactation liberates breastfeeding from this negative symbolic terrain, enabling an exploration of its erotic potential,” she wrote.
“By beginning to write an ars erotica for breastfeeding, we can further our understanding of the intersections between lactation, sexuality and mothering.”