Guardian Australia warns staff against sharing views on the Israel-Hamas conflict

The global news organisation has urged staff to avoid signing open letters, petitions and posting on social media in relation to Israel and Palestine.

Editor of The Guardian Australia, Lenore Taylor. Picture: AAP

The Guardian has warned staff from signing open letters and posting their opinions on social media in relation to Israel and Palestine for fears it will compromise the news organisation’s “editorial integrity.”

Editor-in-chief of the British news organisation, Katharine Viner, shared the new rules in an internal note to staff, alongside her Australian and American counterparts, Lenore Taylor and Betsy Reed.

“We know that a number of staff globally have signed open letters and petitions relating to the conflict. Although this may be well-intentioned, unfortunately it can be perceived as a potential conflict of interest that could hamper our ability to report the news in a fair and fact-based way,” they said.

“It has resulted in unwarranted scrutiny of Guardian journalism and accusations that our journalists and our journalism may be biased.”

The Guardian will now be changing its editorial guidelines, adding to its editorial code of conduct that staff, “should not sign public petitions or open letters about matters that have, or could be perceived to have, a bearing on [the publication’s] ability to report the news in a fair and fact-based way”.

“From now on, where we consider that petitions/open letters or social media posts risk compromising our editorial integrity, senior editors will decide on any appropriate action on a case-by-case basis,” the note reads.

As foreshadowed by The Australian last week, this update of the outlet’s existing editorial code has stemmed from a review by global editors.

“This is not a new policy, but rather a clarification of provisions already in the existing code,” a Guardian spokesperson told The Australian.

“We have not ‘banned open letters’, but rather asked staff to exercise judgement when signing them. We have not banned social posts, nor changed our social media guidelines. We have asked staff to be mindful of them.

“We are confident that the Guardian’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war has been comprehensive, accurate and fair.”

This comes as more than 300 journalists called for more “ethical reporting” and higher levels of rigour from their peers when reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Nine’s management immediately told their staff who had signed the open letter that they would no longer be allowed to report on the conflict.

ABC News director Justin Stevens urged his staff not to sign the letter in a memo.

“You should not sign any petition that may bring into question your impartiality or that of the ABC’s coverage,” he said.

“Maintaining trust and credibility as an ABC staff member means you forgo the opportunity to share your opinions about stories on which you report or may be involved in.”

Taylor also issued a similar all staff memo.

The open letter urged fellow journalists and newsrooms to seek the truth rather than “both-sidesism.” It was supported by the Guardian Australia house committee, the ABC’s internal union representatives, and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

It included prominent journalists and industry members, such as Jan Fran, Tony Armstrong and Benjamin Law, and many others from other mastheads such as The Australian Financial Review, ABC, Schwartz Media and about 24 journalists and staff from The Guardian Australia.

Former editor of The Age, Michael Gawenda, responded to the open letter recently, writing in The Weekend Australian, she 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.”