Anger at ABC bias against Israel

The national broadcaster is facing allegations it has ‘misguided public opinion and inflamed public tensions’ through biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Former ABC broadcaster Ramona Koval. Picture: Darren James

The national broadcaster is facing allegations it has “misguided public opinion and inflamed public tensions” by publishing biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Over 5000 audience members have signed an open letter to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation expressing concern over a “troubling pattern of inaccurate reporting, leading to misinformation”.

In reference to examples where the ABC had questioned verifiable facts presented by Israel while uncritically accepting claims from Hamas, the letter said the ABC was having a damaging impact on social harmony pointing to a “staggering” rise in anti-Semitic incidents in recent weeks.

It accused the ABC of breaching its statutory duty to maintain fairness, impartiality and accuracy, and called for the broadcaster to undertake a thorough review of its reporting practices in relation to the Middle East conflict.

“For instance, the Israeli report that babies had been beheaded by Hamas terrorists, backed by substantial evidence, was portrayed by the ABC as unverified, while uncorroborated death toll figures from a Hamas-run Health Ministry were presented as facts,” it said.

“As well as misrepresenting the conflict through words and statistics, the ABC has failed to visually represent the Israel-Hamas conflict in a balanced way, selectively using images and videos, and choosing interviewees that distort public perception of the conflict.”

It also catalogued a number of failings including the neglect to mention Hamas’ use of human shields, failure to acknowledge a portion of Hamas rockets landing in Gaza and failed to recognise the portion of Gazan deaths as likely Hamas terrorists.

Amid growing public concern the ABC is sympathetic to Hamas, former ABC broadcaster Ramona Koval said she was concerned there was systemic bias existing within the national broadcaster.

Ms Koval, who held several senior positions including Radio National Drive presenter and staff elected board director between 2002-2006, said the ABC had been very slow to correct ­errors made by journalists and warned of systemic bias within the broadcaster.

“They are very slow for corrections. For example, they jumped immediately on the Hamas narrative on the al-Ahli Arab Hospital which turned out to be an own goal by Palestinian Jihad,” Ms Koval said.

“I think it is a systemic issue, as I’ve noticed there are certain issues that are not really reported as matter-of-fact issues, but seems to be in the cultural sphere … or some kind of social movements.”

She also said there was a reluctance to believe information from the Israel Defence Forces but “no reluctance to broadcast Hamas claims”.

Ms Koval also urged reporters to “decide whether they want to be journalists or activists” after more than 200 ABC journalists participated in a mass meeting about the public broadcaster’s coverage of the war in Gaza.

The journalists earlier this month expressed concern about the ABC’s coverage of the conflict arguing it relied too heavily on the talking points of the Israel Defence Forces.

The ABC was contacted for comment.

The open letter comes after the ABC’s Middle East correspondent was “rotated” out of ­Israel after he labelled reports about babies being beheaded by Hamas terrorists as “bullshit” in a WhatsApp group comprising more than 600 media representatives sharing information about attacks by Hamas.