ABC managing director David Anderson has defended the broadcaster’s coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas after controversial text messages leaked from a Whatsapp group with other international media members.
During a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, Anderson was criticised by Liberal senators Hollie Hughes and Sarah Henderson over the broadcaster’s coverage of the ongoing violence in Gaza.
The pair questioned the text messages and an interview on ABC’s 7.30, featuring Hamas’ head of international relations and former health minister, Dr Basem Naim. Senator Hughes claimed that the interview “legitimised terrorism,” but this was quickly shut down by Anderson, who noted that the conversations were justified with the intention to challenge the organisation on misinformation and lies.
Senator Henderson – a former employee of the ABC – said that the decision to broadcast the interview and ABC’s broader coverage of the conflict reflected poorly on the broadcaster’s head of news and current affairs, Justin Stevens. Anderson denied this immediately, supporting Stevens as an “excellent news director”.
In the messages, Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner referred to reports of Hamas beheading Israeli babies as “bullshit”.
Anderson has condemned the comments. “It shouldn’t have happened,” he said. Joyner, who Anderson said is remorseful over the comments, is being investigated by the ABC, with the ABC boss adding that the journalist had “the right to procedural fairness”.
Joyner is currently not reporting from Israel, and it is believed that he will not return to the war zone. “Mr Joyner has rotated out of Israel and is taking a break, and I believe, then returning to his normal base in Istanbul,” Anderson said.
Anderson also confirmed that two other journalists have been rotated out of the Middle East, needing a break.
This is not the first time this month that ABC coverage has come under scrutiny, with the public broadcaster receiving backlash over their coverage of the voice referendum. Anderson conceded that the coverage was “difficult”.
“It was difficult for our teams to ensure we were having a balance of perspective over time,” he said. “We had quite a lot of rejections from people invited on the ABC in the No camp”.
