ABC ombudsman says broadcaster needs to handle criticism better when it make mistakes

The ‘defensive’ taxpayer-funded broadcaster needed to admit when it got a story wrong, the ombudsman said after issuing her first six-month report.

Most of the complaints to the ABC relate to balance, bias and accuracy concerns, an ombudsman’s report has found. Picture: AAP

ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron has criticised the public broadcaster for being too “defensive” when it makes mistakes and said it should instead admit when it gets a story wrong.

The ABC on Tuesday released the ombudsman’s first six-month report for the period to June which looked into complaints handling at the taxpayer organisation, and it showed a majority of complaints at the ABC relate to balance, bias and accuracy concerns.

It also showed the most complaints about content during the period were related to King Charles III’s coronation coverage which attracted nearly 2000 written complaints.

Ms Cameron said the ABC had to do better when it gets criticised for its content.

“I think it’s fair to say that the ABC has been a bit defensive,” she said during an interview on ABC Melbourne’s mornings radio program with broadcaster Virginia Trioli on Tuesday.

“I think they need to shake that off and understand that audiences actually appreciate when the ABC say, ‘hey we got that wrong’ or ‘hey we can do that better’ and we can clarify here, or we’ll correct here or apologise there.”

Ms Cameron also said the ABC’s “corrections and clarifications” web page where the ABC publishes their issues with content including mistakes needed to be improved.

“We need to make better use of (the page) and we are beginning to,” she said.

She told Trioli that the ABC had received 100 complaints across all its channels about bias in favour of a yes vote for the upcoming referendum and many related to grievances over interviewing style on the issue.

“Ninety-two per cent of them are claiming that the ABC is in some fashion biased with reference to the voice,” she said.” she said.

“In these cases I haven’t found specific instances of bias.”
Trioli then commented, “I have also been told to keep as much balance as I possibly can that is humanly possible”.

The ABC recently launched an internal voice tracker which requires staff to fill out a questionnaire about anyone who comments on the upcoming referendum, including their location, position on the issue and whether they are Indigenous.

The ombudsman report also showed in the three years to the end of 2022, complaints averaged 23,767 per year and most were relating to “matters of personal taste or preference or the ABC more broadly”.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson. Picture: Martin Ollman

During the six-month period to June, complaints about bias related to 45 per cent of grievances, followed by factual inaccuracy (26 per cent) and inappropriate content (11 per cent).

Of the 11,440 complaints made during the six-month period, 36 per cent were investigated, 78 per cent were not upheld, 15 per cent were resolved and 8 per cent were upheld.

The report also showed the ABC received 1996 written complaints about the May 6 Coronation coverage, led by journalists Jeremy Fernandez and Julia Baird, which featured an antimonarchy panel criticising the British monarchy, colonisation and the impacts on Indigenous Australians.

The panel was dominated by pro-republic voices and included former Q+A host Stan Grant, Indigenous activist Teela Reid, Australian Republic Movement chair Craig Foster – with Liberal MP Julian Leeser the only pro-monarchist panellist.

However Ms Cameron said the coronation complaints were not directly about the content, many were about its scheduling which did not fall under her remit.

“As far as the editorial standards concerned it didn’t breach and that became a matter for scheduling and whether the ABC wanted to stand by that scheduling commitment,” she said on ABC radio.

She said complainants who lodge a grievance with the ABC about programs or broadcasts that breach editorial standards and are not satisfied with the result can then contact the ombudsman to review it.

Ms Cameron, who was appointed to the new role last September, said her team was a small “tight-knit small group” including “three investigators, a reporting officer and some support staff and that’s it.”

She also said she was separate to the content divisions and did not answer to the ABC’s managing director David Anderson and said she’s “confidently independent”.