Former ABC presenter Kerry O’Brien fears some ABC journos are being forced to ‘self-censor’

Former ABC presenter Kerry O’Brien fears some journalists at the ABC are ‘self-censoring’ their reporting on certain issues including climate change.

Retired ABC journalist Kerry O'Brien said there is a ‘creeping depression’ among staff at the public broadcaster. Picture: Mathew Farrell.

Former ABC presenter Kerry O’Brien says there is a “creeping depression” among the media organisation’s journalists about the direction of the public broadcaster.

The veteran journalist, who left the ABC six years ago, said he maintained strong connections with current staff and had been told of a general drop in morale across the media organisation in recent times.

“The main sense that I have from the many conversations that I have had is a sense of despondency and creeping depression – not despair, yet – but people do fear for their jobs, they fear that the fundamental conditions that have been a part of the success story of the ABC are breaking down,” O’Brien said.

Speaking candidly at an online webinar this month hosted by the independent candidate for the federal electorate of Bradfield, Janine Kitson, O’Brien was asked by the former chair of the Australian Coal Association, Ian Dunlop, whether he thought ABC management was putting pressure on journalists to “self-censor” their reporting on certain issues, including climate change.

“The pressure that goes on all journalists is to continue to find ways of telling the story that are going to continue to interest people and convince them that this is new information and it’s not just the same old ‘banging away’ on the issue,” O’Brien said.

“The danger is that some (journalists) do get the message that they are not going to be popular if they keep ‘banging away’ on an issue.”

O’Brien said journalists’ self-censorship was “hard to see and it’s hard to prove”.

“Sometimes the person who is self-censoring isn’t even aware that they are,” he said.

“I would hate to see that the ABC is pulling its punches in its coverage of climate change.”

O’Brien, who spent about three decades at the ABC, including a stint as host of Four Corners, and long-term anchor of the 7.30 Report, said while the role of the national broadcaster in Australia was more important than ever, he was concerned about the ability of some of the media organisation’s reporters to tackle certain issues without being “intimidated”.

“The mainstream traditional commercial media (is) struggling; there has never been a stronger need outside of wartime for the ABC to be able to report, to be well resourced and to be able to report independent of government, and to be seen to be independent of government without any sense of intimidation,” he said.

“I think that some of our journalists are intimidated.

“I am in a position to measure between the strong press freedoms that I enjoyed for most of my journalism to what my colleagues of today are now experiencing, and it’s a deep worry.”

O’Brien said suggestions to privatise the ABC were madness. “It is the most respected institution in the country, it’s more respected than the parliament,” he said.

“There is no other body as respected as the ABC and it’s been attacked, and it’s been attacked, and it’s been attacked.”

O’Brien also criticised federal government board appointments at the ABC in recent years.

“Those boards have at times not presented in the independent way we would want them to,” he said.

“I think it’s incredibly important that senior management at the ABC feel supported by the board — it has to have confidence in the board and the staff at the ABC have to have the confidence in both senior management and the board if they are going to feel safe in going about their daily tasks.”

The ABC declined to comment on O’Brien’s remarks.