ABC boss David Anderson rejects claims of systemic reporting bias

The ABC boss defends the broadcaster’s impartiality, telling Patricia Karvelas he doesn’t ‘think there’s bias in our reporting’.

ABC managing director David Anderson has rejected claims the taxpayer-funded broadcaster is biased and said reporting on issues including the Israel-Gaza war has been fair and balanced.

Appearing on ABC’s Radio National breakfast program with Patricia Karvelas on Wednesday morning he told listeners: “I don’t see systemic bias at the ABC, I haven’t in the five years that I’ve been managing director.

“There are times when we don’t get it right, we own up to that.

“I don’t think there’s bias in our reporting.

“Some of the criticisms around our coverage of the Israel Gaza War and the humanitarian catastrophe that’s unfolding in the Gaza Strip, I think our reporting has been very good.”

His comments come just one week after ABC staff who are members of the media union, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, passed a motion, 128 votes to three, for a vote of no confidence in Mr Anderson over the handling of matters including the sacking of fill-in radio host Antoinette Lattouf, lack of support for staff who receive public criticism and issues relating to the broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.

The vote of no confidence was from the equivalent of about 3 per cent of staff and resulted in Mr Anderson agreeing to meet with members of the union to discuss their grievances.

ABC managing director David Anderson, right, was asked to meet with staff to discuss their grievances about the sacking of fill-in radio host Antoinette Lattouf, left.

During the radio interview Karvelas also asked Mr Anderson about comments made by the ABC’s global affairs editor John Lyons who was reported last week as saying at a union meeting that he was embarrassed to work at the ABC, in reference to claims ABC management was lobbied by pro-Israeli groups to sack Lattouf.

“I’ve been in touch with John and encouraged him to get in touch with me directly if he’s got concerns,” Mr Anderson said.

“I think that our coverage has been good, as I said before, I think it has stood up to scrutiny.

“We get many, many complaints, many, many people write to us, from both a pro Israeli perspective and a pro Palestinian perspective.”

In December the ABC’s youth music channel came under fire after airing a controversial segment including the song ‘Long Live Palestine; and claims from Indigenous guest presenter, Miss Kaninna, who said there is “genocide and oppression and continued hate towards Palestine people”.

The segment was deleted and multiple staff at the ABC were disciplined over the matter and the ABC’s ombudsman Fiona Cameron said the program breached impartiality standards.

On other issues covered by the ABC, just last week when covering Australia Day the ABC’s Indigenous Affairs editor Bridget Brennan declared in a news report that the country “always was and always will be Aboriginal land.”

When the ABC was asked whether this breached the ABC’s guidelines of impartiality a spokeswoman said: “The ABC backs her completely.”

Karvelas also asked Mr Anderson, “journalists of colour, say they feel policed at a different level than white journalists. Is it right?”

He rejected these comments: “I don’t believe it’s right but you need to hear those concerns.

“I believe when people say that it is important that that is heard and recognised, acknowledged and that you look for why that might be the case that someone feels like that.”

Karevlas raised staff’s use of social media after Lattouf was sacked for sharing a Human Rights Watch post news report that read: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza.”

Mr Anderson said, “It’s important that we’re impartial and accurate.

“We have that in legislation and for anyone who has the privilege of working at the ABC we all know that that’s a responsibility that we all have.”

Karvelas was cautioned over her own use of social media in 2022 after she uploaded a selfie with Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on the night of Labor’s victory in the federal election and wrote: “This woman is a legend and looks like she will be the next Indigenous affairs minister #UluruStatement”.

Patricia Karvelas with Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney.

ABC staff-elected board director and 7.30 political correspondent Laura Tingle said she still backed Mr Anderson but understood staff concerns over independence and diversity.

“I did this (support Mr Anderson) because it was my judgment that this was in the best interests of the staff,” Ms Tingle, who was not the official candidate of the journalists’ union at the time of her election, told Nine Entertainment.

“I completely understand the concerns of staff members who are anxious to ensure that not only the independence of the ABC is maintained, but the perception of independence is maintained.”

Mr Anderson will be meeting with more ABC staff on Wednesday to hear their ongoing concerns but he said he believed his relationship with ABC employees had been restored.

ABC news boss Justin Stevens last week wrote to staff last week and urged staff to “stay united” amid recent controversies plaguing the broadcaster and said: “Let’s continue to pull together on this.

“Values that matter to me include respect, kindness, honesty, integrity, compassion and care for one another.”