Australian Monarchist League calls for ABC apology and an inquiry into coronation coverage
The Australian Monarchist League wants an apology from the ABC and an inquiry into its ‘biased’ coverage of the coronation.
The Australian Monarchist League will on Thursday launch an online petition for an apology from the ABC for its “biased” coverage of King Charles’s coronation, with the group also demanding an independent inquiry into the broadcaster’s “hijacking” of the historic occasion.
The ABC was heavily criticised for its decision to air a 45-minute discussion just prior to the crowning of the King that featured a panel dominated by pro-republic figures, including Q+A host Stan Grant, who spoke at length about colonisation and the damage the monarchy has inflicted on Indigenous Australians.
“Before we get to the fantasy Australia, the Disneyland Australia, let’s deal with the real Australia,” Grant said in the broadcast.
“Let’s not imagine that we can just look at this ceremony tonight and see this as something that is distant, that is just ceremonial and doesn’t hold weight.”
As the ABC showed vision of hundreds of thousands of people pouring into The Mall in London ahead of the service, and guests attending Westminster Abbey, Grant spoke of the pain and injustices for which the monarchy was, in his view, responsible.
“It is scars, it is broken bones and it is too many damaged souls and we need to heal.”
Thousands of viewers took to social media as the coverage was unfolding to express outrage at the “inappropriate” timing of the panel’s discussion.
Several high-profile media commentators such as 3AW’s Neil Mitchell and 2GB’s Ben Fordham – as well as the ABC’s own Media Watch program – echoed the criticism in the days following.
On Thursday, the Australian Monarchist League says will launch a petition calling on the board and management of the ABC to apologise for “the manner in which the coverage … was presented”.
The AML’s petition will also call for the ABC to acknowledge that the coronation coverage breached its own editorial standards and “substantially undermined” the viewing public’s trust in the media organisation.
“The taxpayer deserved better … the ABC has a strict charter which was flagrantly disregarded,” the AML’s campaign chair, Eric Abetz, told The Australian on Wednesday. “Nothing less than a full independent inquiry into the circumstances of this highly inappropriate hijacking of the broadcasting of the coronation is required.
“This was history in the making. Instead of celebrating the occasion and informing viewers of who was arriving and their position and the traditions associated with the various elements of the coronation, viewers were subjected to a diatribe of monologues by ABC personnel peddling their pet subjects backing each other’s views.
“Knowing there would be a huge audience for the coronation, it appears the occasion was deliberately used to pursue an agenda to denigrate the constitutional monarchy which has served Australia so exceptionally well for well over a century.”
The ABC was approached for comment.
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