ABC’s youth channel Triple j aired claims of ‘genocide, the oppression and the continued hate towards Palestine people’

The ABC’s youth music channel has been scolded by the taxpayer-funded organisation’s ombudsman after airing controversial comments supporting Palestine.

The ABC’s youth music channel Triple j is in turmoil after airing a controversial segment including the song ‘Long Live Palestine’ and claims from an Indigenous guest presenter there is “genocide and oppression and continued hate towards Palestine people”.

The prerecorded segment which aired on the Hip Hop Show on November 24 has since been deleted and multiple staff at the taxpayer-funded organisation have been disciplined, guest presenters have been completely axed from Triple j’s line-up and ABC ombudsman Fiona Cameron has declared the program breached the ABC’s impartiality standards.

Ms Cameron said in her findings the segment, led by guest presenter Miss Kaninna, a Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Yirendali and Kalkadoon musician and Triple j Unearthed artist, included comments about the Israel-Gaza war that “were not duly impartial”.

In the segment, which received 10 complaints, Miss Kaninna played the song ‘Long Live Palestine’ and then told listeners: “Now can you guys believe that this track came out in 2011? Right? That’s 12 years ago. 12 years ago!

“Yet somehow if you listen to that track every single thing that that brother is talking about you would think that he wrote it yesterday.

“Because 12 years later the genocide, the oppression and the continued hate towards Palestine people on their Indigenous lands is wild.”

Miss Kaninna also asked the audience when things would change: “When are we going to wake up?

“As an Aboriginal sovereign woman I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters of Palestine.

“From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free.”

Triple J guest presenter Miss Kaninna.

Staff at Triple j have been disciplined as a result, guest presenters have been axed completely from the station’s line-up and the broadcast has been deleted from the triple j website and app.

Just last month on Triple j’s hip hop Instagram account the station was promoting Miss Kaninna as “our new and amazing new resident hip hop show host” and said her first show was airing on November 2.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said despite being pleased with the ombudsman’s findings, “the key issue here is that the show was prerecorded.

“Again and again we have been witness to the culture within the ABC that sees offensively-biased material being given the stamp of approval by producers, from hip hop radio shows to TV news shows for schoolchildren to news and current affairs shows,” he said.

“As we have said before, what is more important than the ABC ‘disciplining’ staff that cross the line, is a much more structural approach — a top-down effort to change the culture within the ABC.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief executive officer Peter Wertheim said Ms Cameron’s determination was a “welcome finding”, and the comments made during the segment were “crude slogans and propaganda.

“This was a welcome finding, and an indication that last year’s reform of the ABC complaints process by the internal creation of a new position of ABC Ombudsman is starting to have a salutary effect,” he said.

“Yet ABC journalists promote their views on a regular basis, usually more subtly through an emphasis on one side of a story at the expense of another.”

Training has also been implemented at Triple j to ensure the “upward referral for contentious or controversial subjects is underway.”

“Given that the presenter was a short-term, external contributor, the role of the station producer is paramount in ensuring proper editorial processes are followed; regrettably, that has not happened in this case,” Ms Cameron said in her report published this week.

“The ABC standards for independence, integrity and responsibility also require that content makers refer matters ‘likely to cause controversy’ to an appropriately senior manager.

“Triple j have confirmed that despite the contentiousness of the content, the producer of the program (which was prerecorded prior to broadcast) did not flag the content with station management, and that if this step had been taken, the material would not have gone to air in the form that it did.”

ABC news director Justin Stevens sent an email to staff last month saying anyone who signed the controversial letter to treat Israel and terror group Hamas with the same scepticism would have their impartiality questioned.

The fallout comes amid the departure of Triple j’s group musical director Richard Kingsmill, whose departure was announced this week.

It also comes just two months after Triple J played Yothu Yindi’s song Treaty on loop for a full hour the day after the voice to parliament referendum failed.

Triple J presenter Nooky, a Yuin and Thunghutti man, said at the time: “Last night was the most overt, most unconcealed manifestation of racism I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.”