‘Offensive’: ABC’s big call on ‘fake gunshot’ scandal

The ABC has released an interim report into a bombshell investigation in which the public broadcaster aired altered audio of an Australian soldier.

An independent investigation into altered audio aired by the ABC in relation into the actions of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan has found there was “no evidence of any intent to mislead”.

In September, the Australian broadcaster was criticised for broadcasting footage that was edited to include audio that depicted soldiers firing six shots at two unarmed Afghani civilians from a helicopter. Just one shot was fired in the original footage and it was a warning to enemy insurgents, former special forces commando Heston Russell said.

While the original video was aired by the ABC in 2022, Mr Russell aired the claims in an explosive interview with Seven’s Spotlight program earlier this year.

After furore over the incident, the ABC removed the 56-second video, acknowledged the error in the video and initiated an independent investigation.

During senate estimates on Tuesday, ABC acting managing director Melanie Kleyn revealed an interim report conducted by journalist Alan Sunderland found there was “no evidence of any intent to mislead by any ABC employee”.

Former commando Heston Russell was critical of the ABC. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“The review found no evidence of any intent to mislead by any ABC employee,” Ms Kleyn said.

“The interim report has also rebutted the suggestion that the central focus of the entire story was misleadingly altered.

“The review has also found that the stories contained important issues that are in the public interest in relation to the issue of altered audio.”

The report also said there was no deliberate effort to “distort the depiction of the events that occurred,” and said it was “not a deliberate editorial decision to include additional gunshot audio in order to mislead or deceive”.

ABC news director Justin Stevens also denied the footage was doctored and criticised the response from competitor media companies.

“The great shame from all of this is that for weeks, various outlets have accused journalists of the highest integrity of doctoring material, which is one of the most offensive and damaging allegations one can make against a journalist,” he said.

“The meaning of doctoring is to deceitfully change something intentionally. What Mr Sunderland’s review shows independently is that our team and journalists and executives at all levels did not doctor any material

“So there was mistakes, but it was not deliberate, and there was no doctoring.”

The report also made five recommendations to review editorial policies around the treatment of crucial source material, training for non-editorial staff working in investigative roles and a re-evaluation of editing practices to ensure “timely and detailed face-to-face contact between editors, reporters and researchers”.

It also called for “consistent and equal scrutiny” on multi-platform stories and recommended the news division “review the guidance note on interviews”.

ABC news director Justin Stevens said the interim investigation clearly stated the footage had not been doctored while admitting an error had been made. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

ABC denies receiving letter

The ABC was also questioned on why it did not act on a letter sent by Mr Russell’s lawyers on November 22, 2022, after the footage was initially aired.

While Ms Kleyn said the broadcaster’s news division was “not handed a copy of that letter,” with Liberal senator Sarah Henderson lashing her comments as “outrageous”.

“Mr Russell’s lawyers were writing to your lawyers, saying you’ve got it wrong. You’ve put these fake gunshots in the video and what? No one did anything?” she said.

“Are you telling me that the lawyers just sat on their hands and did nothing. Did they tell anyone in news?”

During this period, Mr Russell had begun defamation proceedings against the ABC, with the Federal Court awarding him $390,000 in damages in October 2023.

Mr Stevens said the issues should have been flagged with the ABC’s editorial team, instead of its legal team, with Senator Henderson rejecting his claims.

“There was every opportunity after that date between then and now for these issues to be brought to ABC news attention via a formal complaint, via the processes we have in place, and as far as I’m aware, that did not occur,” he said.

Mr Stevens also said he was only made aware of the editing error in September this year, following the Seven report.

Senator Henderson then requested the national broadcaster release all communications between ABC legal and current and former ABC staff.

Ms Kleyn said she would check what they could provide under professional privilege.