Economy
Something In The Water … it’s far from over
REPORT to Ultimo House Committee on Editorial Policies Deputation – from Quentin Dempster (27th June 2011)
Colleagues,
An ABC House Committee deputation comprising Suzanne Culph, NSW secretary of the MEAA, Helen Grasswill, Kerry O’Brien and myself met the Director of News, Kate Torney, on Monday 23rd May to discuss the following agenda arising from the ABC’s recent adverse adjudication (the Garnaut complaint) against The 7.30 Report. (See my report to the House Committee on this case: “Be Warned: Trapdoor for ABC journalism” dated 4th May, 2011, but for easier reading I have incorporated the main points from that report into this one).
The Garnaut case
1. You will remember from the report to the House Committee that the Garnaut complaint involved the ABC broadcasting an apology to Professor Ross Garnaut (in the context of his then capacity as chairman of Lihir Gold Ltd. operating a gold mine on Lihir Island PNG and the then pending takeover of Lihir by Newcrest Mining). Professor Garnaut through his public relations executive at Lihir had at one stage during a number of contacts set aside time to be interviewed (Monday August 30th 2010) during the preparation of journalist Greg Hoy’s 7.30 Report item but withdrew as ‘the Professor’s schedule had changed’. Alternative dates and times for the pre-recorded interview were pursued without result. The broadcast program was critical of Professor Garnaut and, through
grabs from objectors particularly to a process called sea waste disposal or DSTP (deep sea tailings placement), questioned the environmental credentials of Lihir Gold. DSTP involved the dumping out to sea (by pipe or barge) the mine tailings from the Lihir Island gold mine, a process allowed in PNG but not in Australian waters. BHP Billiton has stated that it will not allow mine waste disposal into the marine environment in any of its global operations. The program followed up its story when Professor Garnaut called a news conference to forcefully respond to The 7.30 Report’s item. The program posted on its website a response to Professor Garnaut in defence of its report (The 7.30 Report responds to Ross Garnaut) to which, added to the follow-up broadcast item arising from his news conference, Professor Garnaut took further offence.
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Read the rest on the MEAA website HERE
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The SITW Case
7. In the meantime, as previously reported to the House Committee, another contentious Ed Pols investigation was nearing completion after nearly 12 months. This involved a two-part program broadcast by Australian Story, the case now known as SITW for Something in the Water?
8. It was the story of a Tasmanian GP, Dr Alison Bleaney, and a Sydney marine ecologist, Dr Marcus Scammell and their quest to identify the source of a mystery toxin in the George River catchment at St Helens in Tasmania. The genesis of the story was a crisis in the local oyster industry with increasing oyster mortality; Bleaney’s observations about an increase in cancer, including some rare cancers and other chronic ill health among her patients; and the coincidental emergence of Tassie Devil Facial Tumour Disease which was first identified in that same catchment around the same
time.
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20. The MD rejected my representations and the adverse findings have now been posted on the Australian Story website, with presenter, the unimpeachable Caroline Jones, instructed by the MD to flag the breach in a broadcast back-announce. Significantly ABC management rejected a request that an explanatory note be added to the website post of the summary. Staff wanted the explanatory note to make it clear that none of the Tasmanian authorities approached during the preparation of the program would agree to appear on camera to answer reasonable questions arising from the concerns of the community.
Deputation to MD
Recommendation: That a deputation of senior journalists be assembled to attend on the Editor-in-Chief to raise our concerns listed in the above discussion agenda.
Recommendation: That one additional item be added: The inordinate time taken by the ABC’s editorial policies investigations, taking program makers away from their production demands and the needless adversarial nature of proceedings which, through their reporting lines, undermine the authority and leadership of the Director of News.
Recommendation: That this report update now be circulated to all ABC staff
HERE: