PUBLIC BROADCASTING – AUSTRALIA

ABC board left out on legal costs

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Original article by James Madden, Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 27-Oct-21

The ABC’s MD David Anderson has told a Senate estimates hearing that he made the decision to pay the legal costs of journalist Louise Milligan in a defamation case, and he did not consult the public broadcaster’s board. Anderson defended his actions by saying he had legal advice to the effect that the ABC could potentially have been held vicariously liable for Milligan’s social media posts regarding Liberal MP Andrew Laming; this could have resulted in legal costs for the ABC of up to $700,000. It is estimated that the ABC has incurred legal costs of about $184,000 arising from the case.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

ABC in cover-up claim over Louise Milligan’s tweets about MP Andrew Laming

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Original article by Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph – Page: Online : 26-Oct-21

The ABC is under renewed scrutiny over Andrew Laming’s defamation payout after the public broadcaster declined to release 161 documents concerning the case. The documents in question involve internal discussions regarding the tweets of journalist Louise Milligan about the federal Liberal MP. The documents were requested via freedom of information laws, but the ABC released copies of the documents in which most of the text had been blacked out. One Nation MP Mark Latham has urged Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to release all documents relating to the Laming case.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

Their ABC: no so trusted anymore

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Original article by Evan Mulholland
The Spectator Australia – Page: Online : 22-Oct-21

The ABC has fallen from 10th to 19th place in Roy Morgan’s latest ranking of Australia’s most trusted brands. In a webinar discussing the results of the survey, Roy Morgan social scientist Dr Ross Honeywill comments that the ABC has now fallen from fifth place in just two years, while Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that a lot more people seem to be of the view that the ABC is biased than was previously the case. Declines in its trust rating in Roy Morgan’s monthly net score rankings appear closely linked to media controversies of which the ABC was at the centre.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, ROY MORGAN LIMITED

‘ABC’s $150k legal costs move flawed’

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 19-Oct-21

Auditor-General Grant Hehir has found that there is no documented advice within the ABC to support the public broadcaster’s decision to pay the legal costs of journalist Louise Milligan in the Andrew Laming defamation case. The Liberal MP’s lawsuit ended up costing the ABC about $150,000 in total. Meanwhile, John McMillan and Jim Carroll have been appointed to head an independent review of the ABC’s in-house complaints unit, which has come under growing scrutiny in recent times. McMillan is a former federal and New South Wales ombudsman, and Carroll has previously worked for SBS and the Ten Network.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, SPECIAL BROADCASTING SERVICE (SBS), TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED

ABC’s botched doco to cost jobs

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 19 : 4-Oct-21

The ABC recently withdrew a mini-series examining the 1975 disappearance of Sydney activist Juanita Nielsen from its streaming platform, after it was revealed that the mini-series may have aired false claims. It is believed that some people at the ABC may lose their jobs as a result, with the controversy regarding the Juanita Nielsen mini-series coming not long after an independent assessment into an ABC program into the 1979 Sydney Luna Park fire that killed seven people found it was misleading and had incorrectly implied a relationship between former NSW premier Neville Wran and underworld figure Abe Saffron.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Union blasts ABC on management, underpay

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Original article by Miranda Ward
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 1-Oct-21

A review by the ABC has found that current and former staff employed under certain pay categories between 14 July 2014 and 20 July 2021 had been underpaid. The public broadcaster’s announcement that some staff had been underpaid has prompted an attack by the Community & Public Sector Union, which has accused the ABC of having "serious cultural problems", while urging it to rein in the poor management practices that caused the underpayment problems.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR UNION

ABC was duped by Nielsen sting tale

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 28-Sep-21

The ABC has recently withdrawn a mini-series examining the 1975 disappearance of Sydney activist Juanita Nielsen from its streaming platform. It said it had done so because new information had been received that cast doubt on claims made in the program that an undercover ‘sting’ had unearthed her murderer. Author Peter Rees, who has followed the Nielsen case for decades, contends that the ABC had been "duped" by the claims, which he says were "preposterous". Rees says it shows the ABC needs to improve its fact checking.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

ABC says sorry for Bernardi episode

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 6 : 7-Sep-21

The ABC has apologised to Sky News host and former senator Cory Bernardi for the airing of allegations against him in an episode of the four-part series ‘Ms Represented’. The allegations against Bernadi were made by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, with Bernardi having strongly denied them. In acknowledging Bernardi’s letter of complaint, the ABC conceded that it failed to give him the opportunity to respond to the allegations, and that the program breached its editorial standards

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Minister pans ABC complaint procedure

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Original article by Troy Bramston
The Australian – Page: 3 : 2-Sep-21

The ABC has attracted further scrutiny in the wake of a controversial documentary on the 1979 Luna Park ghost train fire in Sydney. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says the fallout from the documentary should prompt the public broadcaster’s management and board to review its policy for handling audience complaints, in order to determine whether it is functioning effectively. The ABC’s audience and consumer affairs division has rejected all complaints received with regard to the documentary.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS

Board must act on ABC editorial failures

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Original article by Troy Bramston
The Australian – Page: 2 : 1-Sep-21

The ABC continues to attract scrutiny over a controversial documentary on the 1979 ghost train fire at Sydney’s Luna Park. An independent review found that allegations raised in the documentary with regard to former NSW premier Neville Wran were unsubstantiated. The ABC’s former MD David Hill has criticised the public broadcaster’s management for defending the documentary and failing to acknowledge its shortcomings. Hill contends that the documentary breached the ABC’s editorial policies with regard to accuracy and fairness.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION