The ABC has announced it is axing Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s Australia Wide program a month after the presenter made controversial Anzac Day comments on social media.
Abdel-Magied has hosted the program since 2016, however, the ABC has denied it cut the program due to its controversial host.
The ABC is looking at its programming as it sheds 200 jobs and tries to find an additional $50 million to reinvest back into online and regional content.
It appears the ABC’s official position is the show was cut for budgetary reasons, however, a report on Fairfax Media quotes a “source inside the ABC” who said “management were using the the axing of the community-focused program as a convenient opportunity to show Abdel-Magied the door, or at least minimise her on-screen time.”
The report said Australia Wide had been on the chopping block for some time now, however, “Abdel-Magied’s comments all but sealed the program’s fate”.
Abdel-Magied, who has made no public comment on her axing, made national headlines on Anzac Day when she tweeted that Australians should also remember people from Manus Island, Palestine and Syria. The tweet caused outrage as it was deemed highly disrespectful to fallen soldiers.
In February, Abdel-Magied appeared on the ABC’s Q&A espousing Islam as a feminist religion. Her comments were again seen as ignorant to the plight of many Muslim women around the world.
