‘Sincere regret’: ABC sorry over dodgy war crimes story

The public broadcaster has now apologised to a unit of Australian soldiers after it was discovered additional gunshots had been added to a major report about possible war crimes.

The ABC has apologised to a unit of Australian soldiers, a former US DEA leader and to its wider broadcast audience after it was found to have made “errors” while reporting on war crimes.

David Anderson described the saga as “a matter of sincere regret”, which involved “lapses in our processes”, while committing to “not repeating such errors in the future.”

The ABC’s Managing Director was responding to the final release of a review into a two-part series on 7:30 in September 2022, where journalist Mark Willacy speculated members of 2nd Commando Regiment may have broken the rules of war during an operation.

Mr Willacy’s story attracted national attention last year when Channel 7’s Spotlight aired an interview with retired Special Forces Commander Heston Russell. During the program it was revealed the ABC appeared to have added gunshots to footage it showed of a helicopter mission in Afghanistan.

ABC Investigations Reporter Mark Willacy was successfully sued by war veteran Heston Russell in the Federal Court. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

Released on Friday, the report found the editing “error” was the result of “inadvertent consequences” and there was “no evidence that anybody … made a conscious or deliberate decision to introduce additional gunshots.”

However, in a lengthy statement, Mr Anderson said “I apologise to Heston Russell and other members of 2nd Commando Regiment for the impact of these shortcomings.”

Mr Anderson extended his apology to Bret Hamilton, a former US DEA leader, who had previously told The Daily Telegraph he was “furious” the ABC had “manipulated” his quotes about war crimes during a sit-down interview.

The independent report, conducted by former senior ABC staffer Alan Sunderland, confirmed the public broadcaster’s legal team received an email from lawyers representing Mr Russell in November 2022. The letter warned of possible “discrepancies” including what appeared to be notable edits in the helicopter footage shown on 7:30.

Mr Sunderland found there was “clearly a sufficiently detailed concern that it could and should have prompted the ABC to go back to the specific stories and check them for accuracy”.

Alan Sunderland (right), a former senior ABC staffer, conducted the public broadcaster’s independent review into claims gunshots were added to a war crimes story.

However, after interviewing people in the ABC’s Legal team, Mr Sunderland said there was no record of the letter being passed on to editorial management or staff.

The report said the email from Mr Russell’s lawyers “appeared to have been opened” by the legal team, but “no one I spoke to can recall specifically reading the full attachment and noting the issue of altered audio”.

“The correspondence was overlooked and not passed on to ABC News for separate consideration … journalists only became aware of the potential problems in the lead up to the broadcast of the (Channel 7) Spotlight program.” Mr Sunderland said.

“I have spoken directly to those to whom the email was addressed, and they have also confirmed that they have no recollection of passing the email onto staff in ABC News or discussing its contents with them.

“All of the journalists and managers I have spoken to in the ABC News are consistent in saying that this letter was never drawn to their attention, and they had no idea there were accuracy concerns about the way the audio of the helicopter footage was edited.”

Mr Sunderland also said the error may have occurred because the broadcaster’s legal team misunderstood the email’s subject line and it was sent during “an extraordinarily busy time”

Heston Russell was awarded more than $400,000 by the Federal Court after successfully suing the ABC. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

The 39-page report, which does not mention ABC staff by name, also found the additional gunshots were not added to “deliberately mislead or doctor” and were “not detected” by editing staff, producers or star reporter Mark Willacy.

“I find no evidence that anybody, at any stage, made a conscious or deliberate decision to introduce additional gunshots.” Mr Sunderland said.

The report also notes there were issues preparing the story as it was “edited in Sydney and the reporter was in Brisbane”.

“Both the reporter and the producer on the story, who had responsibility for overseeing the edit of the story, are adamant they did not ask for or direct that additional gunshot audio should be added at any point, and at no stage prior to the public concerns being raised some two years later were they aware that it had occurred” Mr Sunderland said.

He claimed the video editor of the story “no longer works for the ABC … but given the passage of time they have been unable to provide me with any confirmation that they added additional gunshot audio”.

Mr Sunderland’s report further addresses a story in The Daily Telegraph featuring retired US DEA leader Bret Hamilton, who previously told this masthead he was “furious” after being edited out of context by the ABC.

US DEA leader Bret Hamilton served alongside Australian soldiers. Picture: Supplied

Reporter Mr Willacy had told Mr Hamilton in a telephone conversation he was researching a “positive” story about the joint operations between Australian and US troops in Afghanistan.

Mr Hamilton’s interview was eventually used in Mr Willacy’s story about alleged war crimes, where he was edited to appear that he believed Australian troops “should definitely be investigated” over their actions in Afghanistan.

The report found the ABC’s editing of Mr Hamilton “lacked context and was potentially misleading” and was “not accurately represented”, however there was “no evidence that the interview was in any way an ambush.”

An online version of the helicopter story has been removed from the internet. Several other war crimes stories by the ABC were also removed after it lost a defamation case against Mr Russell in the Federal Court.

Mr Russell was awarded more than $400,000 in damages after being wrongly linked to a criminal investigation.

Originally published as ‘Sincere regret’: ABC sorry over dodgy war crimes story