ABC scraps vision showing a person of colour stealing goods from supermarket

The public broadcaster has educated staff after it received numerous complaints over footage aired of a person of colour stealing items from a supermarket.

ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron voiced her concerns about the use of the footage.

The ABC has stripped vision depicting a person of colour shoplifting in a news report and educated staff on the matter after receiving complaints.

The story, “Why supermarkets are seeing more theft in their stores”, aired on ABC’s 7pm news bulletins on August 23 and shortly after the public broadcaster received five complaints. These included that using a person of colour “perpetuated a stereotype that shoplifters were not likely to be white”. There were also concerns the CCTV footage showing the person of colour stealing was used multiple times.

ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron launched an investigation, reviewing the footage to see if it breached the ABC’s editorial stands for harm and offence.

The footage was supplied to the ABC by Drakes supermarket and used in the TV news story to show someone who had allegedly been caught by the supermarket’s security system after stealing goods and before leaving the store. Included in the footage was vision showing a person of colour walking into a store, putting their hands in their pockets while the reporter said, “Theft is on the rise at supermarkets across the country. It’s costing John Paul Drake’s business $10m a year”.

Ms Cameron said the use of the vision was concerning and she had voiced her concerns to the ABC.

“While the use of the footage might be justified in the context of the story, it is regrettable that the only video of an alleged shoplifter was of a person of colour,” she said.

“After passing on my concerns to senior news and editorial policy staff, to help inform what footage is shown in future stories about similar content, a decision was made to remove the video-on-demand version of the story from iview and the Instagram post.”