ABC responds to complaints and rectifies poor reportage
The ABC has acknowledged that its coverage of a Palestinian terror attack earlier this month, which claimed the life of an Israeli security officer, was flawed.
Chen Amir Photo: Courtesy the family
Chen Amir, 42, was killed when a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad opened fire in Tel Aviv on the night of Saturday, 5th August.
Amir’s partner then shot the terrorist to prevent him firing at any more people.
However, the headline that accompanied the ABC’s coverage online simply stated, “Palestinian man killed in Tel Aviv shooting that leaves another critically injured.”
It made no mention that the Palestinian was a terrorist or that he had been killed after he himself had opened fire, fatally wounding Amir.
Describing the headline as “misleading and unbalanced”, Zionism Victoria urged The ABC to rectify it as soon as possible.
In a letter emailed to Zionism Victoria today, the ABC Ombudsman’s Office wrote, “Regarding the headline, ABC News agreed this was an issue: Although the lead line in the body of the story said the Palestinian man was killed after he opened fire, our headlines (main title and teaser title) didn’t make clear that the Palestinian man actually opened fire before he was killed.
The story has been updated with the full details of what happened and an editor’s note added: ‘Editor’s note (18/8/23): This story was originally published with a headline, “Palestinian man killed in Tel Aviv shooting that leaves another critically injured”, which did not adequately convey the circumstances conveyed in the text. The headline has been updated and the text of the story has been updated to reflect details that emerged later, including the death of the municipal officer.’
“We consider these steps address the concerns raised and thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
The headline on the story now reads, “Palestinian shooting attack in downtown Tel Aviv kills Israeli security guard”.
Welcoming ABC’s response, Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb said, “It is incumbent on all news organisations, in particular our national broadcaster, to ensure accuracy in their reporting.
Nowhere more so is this an issue than in their coverage of Israel where bias, lack of balance and misreporting so often convey a misleading or wholly erroneous impression of the conflict with the Palestinians, ignoring the complex nuances at its heart and the facts on the ground.
We are grateful the broadcaster has acknowledged its error in this instance, but we hope it will also update its editorial processes to ensure this does not happen again.”
The Zionist Federation of Australia also registered a complaint but remains concerned.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said, “While it was proper for the ABC to change the headline, what is concerning is the total lack of acknowledgement of the clear breach in the ABC’s Code of Practice. The original headline manifestly misled readers as to the nature of the event. After reading the ABC’s explanation, we are still mystified how a supposedly impartial journalist could possibly think the headline was appropriate.”
The ABC (Radio & TV) is generally a good service to Australians nation wide and to the S/W Pacific and S/E Asian communities and to international audience everywhere. The ABC leaves most of the grubby commercial station for dead not to mention the mostly dreadful US media.
of course, that’s what the mainstream Washington news media does.they don’t care about who it hurts.they think they can say what they want to.