‘Ramblings of woke journalists’: MEAA member slams anti-Israel letter

The campaign behind an anti-Israel petition signed by more than 300 journalists has been denounced by a member of the journalists’ union’s National Media Section committee.

The West Australian's Neale Prior has spoken out against the MEAA endorsed anti-Israel petition.

The campaign behind an anti-Israel petition signed by more than 300 journalists has been denounced as “woke”, “dangerous” and a “serious mistake” by a member of the journalists’ union’s National Media Section committee, which last week voted to endorse the document.

“There is no support for that petition west of Adelaide,” Neale Prior, a 30-year veteran at The West Australian, who voted against circulating the letter, told The Australian.

“It dangerously prescribes how journalists should cover unfolding events in Palestinian territories and Israel, complete with justifications for the actions of Hamas as it spearheads a 75-year campaign to wipe out Israel,” he said.

Prior is an elected member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s NMSC and has studied and reported extensively on the Middle East.

The veteran journalist is particularly aggrieved that the letter urges: “Australian newsroom leaders to be as clear-eyed in their coverage of atrocities committed by Israel as they are of those committed by Hamas.”

“What the hell?” Prior said. “Hamas terrorists gunning down people at the Supernova music festival and in nearby communities are not comparable with Israeli forces bombing heavily populated parts of Gaza used by Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.”

He also wrote a column in The West Australian on Friday calling the MEAA-endorsed campaign, signed by high-profile ABC presenters, including Jan Fran and Tony Armstrong and 24 Guardian Australian staff, the “ramblings of woke journalists in Australia’s southeastern corner”, and expressing his anger at the process followed in the November 23 meeting during which the petition was voted on.

He rejected the MEAA claim that the document had been “convincingly approved” by the National Media Section committee after a “robust debate”.

The Australian has confirmed with multiple sources that the vote was endorsed 19 to 10, with five abstentions. One person in attendance called the motion “a series of unfortunate events”, while another said it was “a wrongfully rushed debate”.

In his column, Prior said the motion was in “blatant breach” of MEAA rules, which state people are allowed three minutes to speak for or against a motion; on this occasion committee members were “restricted to speaking for one minute”.

“No one from union management watching from around the room warned us the rules were being broken. The rushed debate came after hours had been wasted on procedural humbug and group hugs that only unionists of a particular ilk can enjoy.”

Prior said those present were instructed no amendments could be made to the letter, despite its earlier failure when voted on by the house committees of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

“We had to take it or leave it,” he said.

An MEAA spokesman said the “open letter to journalists was one item in a full day’s agenda”.

“A robust discussion was held where all participants who wanted to speak were provided with equal time, and following the debate a vote was held, which carried the resolution.

“No formal objections were raised on the day about the conduct of the meeting.”

The letter drew responses from journalists who oppose it. Michael Gawenda, a former editor of The Age, writing in The Weekend Australian, said: “Many journalists no longer want to be journalists, by which I mean they no longer want to do the hard work of reporting … which once was considered the highest calling in journalism.

“They no longer accept that journalism is a lonely job, that journalists are outsiders, that they must not belong to political parties or any organisation or group that might compromise their ability to be fair and accurate in their reporting.

“(They) no longer want to be the recorders of the first rough draft of history. What they want is to be on the right side of history.”

Nine management has since banned staff who have signed the petition from contributing to coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

ABC news director Justin Stevens and Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor have expressed concerns to their staff about supporting the letter, informing them they risk having their impartiality questioned.

The West Australian house committee was not consulted about the letter and is “concerned” the MEAA has endorsed the campaign.