Report on ABC’s ‘doctored audio’ scandal blames lawyers

A report has blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on complaints by former commando Heston Russell that extra gunshots had been edited into an ABC news report.

Retired Special Forces officer Heston Russell. Picture: Steve Pohlner

The final report of an independent reviewer has blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on complaints by former commando Heston Russell that extra gunshots had been edited into an ABC news report claiming to show an Australian soldier firing at unarmed civilians from a helicopter in Afghanistan.

Last year, the Seven Network’s Spotlight program revealed the segment had been edited to make it appear as if Australian Defence Force personnel had fired six shots instead of just one warning shot.

Mr Russell and his platoon were not named in the “Line of Fire” stories but the special forces veteran says he was clearly the target.

The ABC took down the video and blamed an “editing error”, saying journalists Jo Puccini, Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson “had no role in the production and editing of the online video”.

The broadcaster in November released an interim report into the episode by former ABC editorial executive Alan Sunderland, who concluded the gunshots were “inadvertently” added but that there was “no evidence of any intent to mislead”.

The ABC launched an internal investigation into how the broadcaster published an online video that edited footage of a soldier firing from a helicopter in Afghanistan. Screenshot from vision provided by Heston Russell to the ABC and Spotlight.

In 2023, Mr Russell successfully sued the ABC in the Federal Court for defamation and was awarded $390,000 in damages plus legal costs over separate stories that included allegations regarding the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2012.

Mr Sunderland’s final report into the altered audio, completed in December, was released by the ABC on Friday. The ABC declined to answer questions from The Weekend Australian about why it had delayed release of the report for at least five weeks.

The final report largely mirrored Mr Sunderland’s interim findings but blamed ABC lawyers for failing to pass on Mr Russell’s complaints to the editorial team.

In November 2022, two months after the Line of Fire stories were broadcast, lawyers for Mr Russell – who had begun defamation action against the ABC over separate stories – wrote to the ABC pointing out that extra shots had been added to the helicopter footage and asking for an explanation.

Mr Sunderland said this was “clearly a sufficiently detailed concern that could and should have prompted the ABC to go back to the specific stories and check them for accuracy” but the ABC journalists told him the letter was never drawn to their attention.

This was “effectively confirmed by ABC Legal”, he said, after a search of files indicated that “there does not appear to be any record of it being passed on to ABC editorial staff”.

Mr Russell in Afghanistan in 2012.

It was a busy time for the legal department, Mr Sunderland said. However, five months later Mr Russell’s lawyers again wrote to the ABC saying: “Our client is understandably concerned about the ABC’s use of footage in relation to this matter and in particular the footage produced to him in these proceedings that has altered audio.”

Mr Sunderland described this as a “passing comment” that “should, nevertheless, have been sufficient notice for the issue to be followed up without further action being required by the lawyers for Mr Russell”.

Mr Sunderland said that in the months leading up to the defamation case there had been “an enormous number of ‘open’ matters” handled by the legal team and that “a small number of staff in ABC Legal were handling an enormous amount of work.”

“Attention should be given to ensuring that resources are sufficient to ensure nothing is overlooked,” he said.

In a statement on the ABC website, managing director David Anderson apologised on Friday to the broadcaster’s audience for “the lapses in our processes”, and to Mr Russell and other members of the 2nd Commando Regiment “for the impact of these shortcomings”.

ABC Investigations reporter Mark Willacy arriving at the Federal Court in Sydney in August 2023 to give evidence about articles over which he is being sued by former commando Heston Russell. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

Mr Russell told The Weekend Australian he did not accept the finding that the addition of gunshots was “an editing error”, disputing the independence of Mr Sunderland as a long-time ABC staffer.

He also rejected as “absolute bullshit” the finding that his letters were simply missed by ABC lawyers and not passed on “because the ABC then went and dropped their truth defence and submitted additional defences and additional documents to the Federal Court, so if they weren’t reviewed by the ABC management who approved the submission of those new defences?”.

Mr Russell said the ABC had not provided him with a copy of the final report and he had only become aware of it through the media.

He described the report as “one giant gaslighting exercise” because the ABC had never apologised for accusing him of being the soldier who was shooting or for claiming the Afghan was unarmed.

“I gave them a whole full five minutes of helmet-cam footage of the entire mission that shows me and my soldier get ambushed by the enemy on the ground, and they were the people we were chasing,” he said.