ABC’s Southbank building vandalised by Pro-Palestinian activists
Pro-Palestinian activists have targeted ABC’s Southbank building on Friday morning, spray painting “tell the truth” across its exterior.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters have targeted ABC’s Melbourne building on Friday morning, vandalising the exterior with paint.
The Southbank building was doused in red paint about 3am, with the words “tell the truth about Palestine” written across the glass windows.
The paint had not been cleaned off the building as of 9am.
It comes as a fill-in host for one of the ABC’s most coveted radio spots was sacked earlier this week for a slew of anti-Israel posts.
Antoinette Lattouf had been hosting ABC Sydney’s mornings program for just three days when numerous complaints were received about her conduct, including recent commentary on social media that “gas the Jews” footage from Sydney’s Opera House was unverified and accusations Israeli forces had committed rape.
It is understood an influx of complaints from the Jewish community reached the public broadcaster’s chairwoman Ita Buttrose, which resulted in Ms Lattouf’s termination.
#ABCMelbourne this morning. pic.twitter.com/khSpprUf7W
— Luke Siddham Dundon (@lukesdundon) December 21, 2023
Activists also staged a protest outside The Age, Nine Melbourne and Australian Financial Review offices on Wednesday.
Protesters wore vests and caps with a “press” label on them and held signs that read “media silence upholds violence”.
In a statement issued on social media, Free Palestine Melbourne said the demonstrations were to “protest the Australian media silence on journalist deaths in Gaza”.
“To protest the killings of 95 journalists by Israel in its war on Gaza, activists have staged a ‘die-in’ at the Channel 9/The Age headquarters this morning calling for the Australian media to end its censorship, bias, and conflicts of interest in its reporting on Palestine,” the statement read.
The group accused Australian journalists of impartial reporting and wrote an open letter asking journalists to apply the same “professional scepticism” to uncorroborated Israeli government information as it applies to the terrorist group Hamas.
“A recent open letter by 337 Australian journalists called for unbiased and contextual reporting on Palestine as many members of the Australian media … have accepted all-expenses paid propaganda trips to Israel,” they wrote.
In response, Nine’s editorial leadership team banned any reporters who signed the letter from reporting on the conflict.
“It is a strong-held tenet that our journalists’ personal agendas do not influence our reporting on news events,” they wrote.
“This applies across the board, including to our coverage of the current war in Israel and Gaza.
“Any newsroom staff who signed this latest industry letter will be unable to participate in any reporting or production related to the war.”
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