Four Corners denies pizza vouchers, transporting itinerants

National current affairs program Four Corners is under fire for driving itinerants to conflict situations and handing out pizza vouchers. Read what the ABC said.

National broadcaster the ABC defended the actions of a Four Corners crew filming a report on private security firms in the Northern Territory.

An ABC spokesman has denied a claim the organisation handed out pizza vouchers to encourage homeless Territorians to mingle with private security officers in a Darwin carpark and has also been forced to respond to an accusation its crew transported an itinerant into direct conflict situations with security guards.

The denial comes as Police Minister Kate Worden said if the claims were true, they would amount to “appalling behaviour” by the ABC.

Police Minister Kate Worden isn’t a fan of the ABC’s Four Corners. Photo by PEMA TAMANG PAKHRIN

Ms Worden was asked on air by Mix360 host Katie Woolf whether she was aware of allegations made against the Four Corners crew in the Northern Territory.

“If they’re true, it’s appalling behaviour by those journalists,” Ms Worden said.

“It’s my understanding that they are alleged to be creating hostile and aggressive situations and they’re creating those.

“That’s appalling behaviour, whether it’s security guards or our police.

“They have got an incredibly tough job as it is without, you know, (the ABC) coming, those journalists coming along and making it even harder for them and stirring up trouble in our community.

“If the allegations that I’m hearing are true, then we need to call out that behaviour.

“My understanding is that they are allegedly creating situations. You know, providing pizza for comment is one of the ones I’ve heard.

The ABC’s Four Corners interviewed a violent itinerant at Parap Village shops

“(It’s) also my understanding that they’ve driven somebody around to where they’ve had a previous confrontation with security guards and they’ve actually orchestrated, you know, that person rocking up and trying to antagonise a situation to occur.”

This masthead spoke to a security guard on Tuesday who said the ABC had attempted to create a situation where he came into contact with a Territory man who had previously struck a private security guard with a stick.

Caro Meldrum-Hanna

In a statement to this masthead, an ABC spokeswoman denied the voucher claim.

“The allegation raised by the NT News is untrue. No pizza vouchers were handed out at any point.”

The ABC admitted filming an itinerant charged with assault “and subsequently filmed him at the location where the incident occurred”, but denied it was timed to embarrass or confront security guards.

“This was timed carefully and specifically to avoid any interaction and none occurred.”

The ABC’s Four Corners has a history of portraying the NT in a negative light.

In 2016 its report into juvenile detention former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull into announcing a $76m royal commission, that failed to deliver any meaningful outcomes for youth detainees.

Caro Meldrum-Hanna, the reporter responsible for the juvenile detention story, recently left Four Corners.