ABC’s Laura Tingle reminded about her use of social media after controversial tweet

ABC’s chief political correspondent Laura Tingle says she hardly bothers with social media anymore.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson. Picture: AAP

ABC’s chief political correspondent Laura Tingle says she hardly bothers with social media anymore after she was “reminded” of her professional obligations following a tweet accusing the federal government of “ideological bastardry”.

Posts, likes and retweets by ABC staff have captured the attention of the public broadcaster’s managing director David Anderson in recent times – he last week told a Senate ­estimates hearing he would look into potential breaches of their social media guidelines by Four Corners executive ­producer Sally Neighbour in the wake of the settlement of the Christian Porter defamation case.

Tingle admitted she was “spoken to” about her social media guidelines after her controversial post in October last year and was told her not to bring the ABC into disrepute.

“I had conversations with people who said it probably wasn’t a smart thing to do, which I agreed,” she said.

“Nobody told me what I should or shouldn’t be tweeting. I was reminded of what my obligations were.”

Tingle had written a post farewelling an ABC colleague and referred to redundancies at the public broadcaster: “We grieve the loss of so many of our colleagues to government ideological bastardry. Hope you are feeling smug @ScottMorrisonMP.”

Tingle deleted the tweet the next day, and now rarely uses the social media platform.

“I think it isn’t a platform where you can have a very intelligent conversation about anything anymore, I will tweet the odd thing but I don’t think it’s a platform for discussion and debate, it’s practically useless,” she said.

Laura Tingle. Picture: Supplied

Tingle claimed “trolling” was “certainly worse if you work for the ABC”.

“The vitriol directed at some of my colleagues is disgraceful and disgusting and being on it in an active way, you are certainly asking for it in a way,” she said.

The ABC updated its social media policy in March and said employees must be “conscious of their responsibility to protect the organisation’s reputation, independence, impartiality and integrity where personal use of social media may intersect with their professional life”.

Mr Anderson confirmed letters had been sent to multiple staff regarding their social media use but said the public broadcaster could not restrict a staff member’s “civil liberties” by stopping them from posting.

“We are not responsible … however we will take action if it’s in breach of the code,” he said.

The ABC would not disclose how many employees had been contacted about concerns relating to their social media posts.