Staff warned that language in the national broadcaster’s coverage ‘favoured the Israeli narrative over objective reporting’.
Staff at Australia’s national broadcaster warned that its coverage of the war in Gaza relied too much on Israeli sources and used language that “favoured the Israeli narrative over objective reporting”, internal communications reveal, shedding new light on bias claims that convulsed the outlet.
In a summary of a meeting on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)’s coverage of the war, staff detailed concerns that coverage displayed pro-Israel bias, such as by accepting “Israeli facts and figures with no ifs or buts” while questioning Palestinian viewpoints and avoiding the word “Palestine” itself.
The three-page summary, which media obtained via a freedom of information request with the ABC, is undated, but its contents correspond with a meeting of 200 staff that was held in November to address concerns about the broadcaster’s coverage.
While the broad thrust of concerns aired at the meeting was reported by Australian media in November, the document contains extensive detail about staff’s complaints and previously unpublicised examples of alleged pro-Israeli bias.
“We’re worried the language we’re using in our coverage is askew, favoring the Israeli narrative over objective reporting. This is evident in our reluctance to use words such as ‘War crimes’, ‘Genocide”, ‘Ethnic cleansing’, ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Occupation’ to describe the various aspects of the Israeli practices in Gaza and the West Bank, even when the words are attributed to respectable organisations and sources,” staff said in the document, which is signed “Concerned ABC journalists and staff” and addressed to “managers and colleagues”.
“Meanwhile, we’re quick to use ‘terrorist’, ‘barbaric’, ‘savage’ and ‘massacre’ when describing the October 7th attacks. Similarly, we regularly quote sources referring to highly contested claims made by Israel, but not those made by Palestinians and their supporters.”
While the ABC could not make accusations of genocide or war crimes taking place, staff said, the broadcaster “should be more proactive in reporting them to properly contextualise the conflict”.
“This is especially the case as we are far more comfortable in labelling Hamas’s actions ‘terrorism’ yet lack the language to correctly describe Israeli aggression in the region,” they said.
As a result of the ABC’s editorial policies, staff said, audiences had been led to believe that the broadcaster “stifles one narrative in favour of another”.
“Many community members – not limited to the Arab and Muslim communities – in Australia have expressed this view to several ABC journalists and in other forums,” they added.
Staff also said they felt ABC management had failed to defend their staff from attacks by other media and politicians for expressing their personal views on the war, “despite there being instances of the ABC doing that for some senior journalists who have posted about other issues in the past”.
In response to the concerns raised by ABC staff, an ABC spokesperson told media the broadcaster does not comment on confidential staff matters.
“All major stories are subject to robust internal discussion and we listen to and respect staff input,” the spokesperson said.
Months after the staff meeting, tensions continue to simmer at the ABC over the conflict.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union last week registered a second vote of no confidence in the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, and “all ABC managers involved in the decision to unfairly dismiss” freelance broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.
Lattouf’s short-term contract as a presenter on ABC Radio Sydney was abruptly cut short in December after the journalist shared a report from Human Rights Watch accusing the Israeli government of deliberately starving civilians in Gaza.
The Sydney Morning Herald later revealed that a WhatsApp group calling itself Lawyers for Israel had lobbied for her removal with ABC’s top management.
Lattouf, who is of Lebanese heritage, has filed an unlawful termination claim against the ABC with Australia’s Fair Work Commission.
The ABC has denied that external pressure played a role in its decision to take Lattouf off the air.
The ABC spokesperson told media that the broadcaster “has a demonstrable track record of doing our utmost to defend our journalism and employees against unwarranted criticism.”
The spokesperson said the ABC is currently “defending the Antoinette Lattouf matter before the Fair Work Commission” and it would be “inappropriate to comment further while that decision is pending”.
The ABC’s chair, Kim Williams, on Monday accused staff who had joined the votes of no confidence over Lattouf’s treatment of rushing to judgement and being “enormously unhelpful.”
Williams earlier this month also warned journalists against letting their personal politics affect their work.
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