THE ABC (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION) HAS BEEN UNDER THE GUNS FROM VARIOUS PLACES — FROM THE MURDOCH MEDIA, THE IPA, THE MELBOURNE JEWISH LOBBY, FROM VARIOUS GOVERNMENTS SLASHING ITS BUDGET AND FROM WITHIN ITSELF — LOSING SIGHT OF ITS NEWS VALUES AWAY FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA.

NOW IT HAS A NEW CHAIRMAN (CHAIRPERSON) WHO USED TO WORK FOR RUPERT MURDOCH... DESPITE THIS, WE SUSPECT KIM WILLIAMS IS QUITE AWARE OF THE VALUE OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING, AND WILL PROTECT THE ABC FROM THE DESTRUCTORS...

FROM THE SMH...

The new chair will have to act fast to restore order in the wake of the Lattouf sacking, write Michael Bachelard and Calum Jaspan.

Ita Buttrose’s final farewell as chair of the ABC board in a few weeks’ time will be a speech-filled celebration at Studio 22, the broadcaster’s high-tech production spaces in Ultimo – a cocktail-attire swansong for one of the Australian media’s most celebrated women.

But if the plan was to engineer a smooth transition to chair-in-waiting Kim Williams, that hope has been dashed in the past fortnight by events few could have predicted.

The sacking in December of casual broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf prompted a racial discrimination claim in the Fair Work Commission, an editorial staff revolt, criticism from senior reporter John Lyons, and question marks at the ABC over vexed issues of diversity, bias and complaint handling.

Revelations of complaints about Lattouf from a group of pro-Israel lawyers led to unionised staff in the news section giving a vote of no confidence in managing director David Anderson. In that Zoom meeting, Lyons, the ABC’s global affairs editor, described his employer’s response to critics as ‘‘embarrassing’’.

Buttrose’s reply was an emergency meeting of the board, a counter vote of confidence in Anderson, and a public statement calling staff complaints about the managing director ‘‘abhorrent and incorrect’’.

As one close observer put it, the ABC has ‘‘tripled down’’ on Lattouf’s dismissal. What they say these events reveal is the demoralisation in one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions. The sacking of Lattouf was simply the spark, they say, for an explosion that shows how well primed the broadcaster was after years of external criticism, government pressure, high-profile departures, and what some see as management inertia and absenteeism.

This is the ABC that Williams will walk into on March 6.

He knows it’s a big job. In a series of interviews this week, he described it as the ‘‘campfire of Australia’’, with a ‘‘responsibility to national identity’’. But it’s unclear if he knows how difficult it will be. The question now consuming the thousands who work there, and those with an interest in the ABC’s success, is whether Williams is the right man to fix it.

ACTIVIST AND JOURNALIST

When the acting head of the ABC’s five capital city radio stations, Steve Ahern, had five shifts to fill in the Sydney morning slot in the lead-up to Christmas, he turned to Lattouf. The stories and tone were to be featherlight, and she – a prominent freelance journalist, diversity advocate, author and commentator – could deliver.

What he should have known was that, in the two months before this appointment, she had also been an outspoken critic of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza following the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Among her social media posts were ones saying Israeli soldiers were ‘‘bloodthirsty’’ and had used rape as a weapon of war for the entirety of the country’s history.

Intimately familiar with the role Lattouf would take on, the longtime host of the ABC Melbourne mornings, Jon Faine, says you ‘‘surrender yourself’’ and your opinions to take on a position of such influence.

‘‘On Friday, Ms Lattouf was an activist, on Monday she was an ABC presenter,’’ Faine says. ‘‘Well, that doesn’t work.’’

According to the ABC’s version of events, before Lattouf had even finished her first day, managers informed her of a barrage of complaints against her, and she was warned not to post anything ‘‘controversial’’ on social media.

The following day she reposted a Human Rights Watch story (that was also covered as a news story by the ABC).

Soon after her shift finished on Wednesday, December 20, she was sacked.

‘‘She clearly shouldn’t have been appointed,’’ says one former senior ABC journalist, ‘‘but once they did, management is obliged to protect, and be seen to protect her’’.

Lattouf alleges in court documents that her race or cultural background as a ‘‘Lebanese/Arab/Middle Eastern’’ journalist formed part of the unlawful reason for her sacking. (In its legalistic response, the ABC denies that she was dismissed at all.)

In one sense, all that was at stake were two morning radio shifts of a casual reporter.

But reporting in the Herald over the past week offered a rare glimpse into what was going on behind the scenes. At least two groups of pro-Israel activists, lawyers and creatives organised themselves in separate WhatsApp groups to trawl the media and social media to find instances in Lattouf’s posts of what they believe was antisemitism.

Then they discussed their complaints to Buttrose and Anderson. Later, Lattouf was sacked.

If seeing the details of the campaign against her was enlightening, equally so was the way Buttrose responded.

‘I DIDN’T KNOW’

In Buttrose’s response to the staff’s noconfidence motion, she said the ABC regularly received and responded to complaints ‘‘from individuals or organisations and the assumption that either the managing director as editorin-chief or I would be influenced by any sort of lobbying pressure is quite simply wrong’’.

That is not how it appears to either those doing the lobbying or, more importantly, her staff.

In one email response to WhatsApp group complainants, the ABC chair said their letter had been ‘‘noted’’ and ‘‘forwarded . . . to Chris Oliver-Taylor, the ABC’s chief content officer, who is dealing with this matter’’. Buttrose thanked another letter writer for their email on the day Lattouf was sacked, adding: ‘‘You are probably unaware Ms Lattouf no longer works at the ABC.’’

To some ABC staff, the revelation of Buttrose’s responses reminded them of a still simmering issue. Veteran broadcaster Stan Grant stood down in May last year, saying he had received little to no support from the organisation’s management when he came under a barrage of criticism for his appearance on a panel discussion of King Charles’ coronation. Lyons said Grant had been ‘‘hung out to dry’’.

Buttrose’s response to Grant’s distress was: ‘‘I didn’t know, and I don’t think many of us knew, until fairly late in the piece.’’ Two months later, in July, Buttrose responded to complaints from the Australian Monarchists League, saying: ‘‘I am sorry they were disappointed with our coverage.’’ Grant quit for good shortly after.

THE QUIET PART

The ABC has tried vigorously, and made progress, in hiring culturally and linguistically diverse staff, something most media organisations have been bad at doing. But the day after Lattouf’s dismissal, news broke of federal politics reporter Nour Haydar’s resignation over the ABC’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza.

The Herald confirmed that a number of diverse staff on the ABC’s books were leaving or considering doing so for similar reasons.

The quiet part was said out loud by Lyons at the Monday meeting: ‘‘They come for a while,’’ he said, ‘‘then they’re out because they get a taste of what it’s like to work here for them.’’

In a statement on Thursday, news director Justin Stevens said he wanted a ‘‘constructive discussion . . . in coming weeks about diversity, impartiality and objectivity . . . Our diverse workforce is a major asset. In fact, it can be a superpower for us.’’

He conceded, though, that ‘‘if we’re honest with each other we still have a way to go’’.

Some staff complain that the leadership team is ‘‘invisible’’, particularly outside Sydney. Buttrose, they say, is out of touch. Anderson is editor-inchief, but has no background in journalism – he comes from the entertainment side of the organisation.

Lyons said a feeling that reporters were not adequately protected meant they had to self-censor to survive.

Approached for interviews, both Anderson and Buttrose replied through statements. Anderson often engages with staff, external stakeholders and audiences, and ‘‘takes every opportunity to discuss matters with individual ABC staff or groups of staff directly when they request a meeting over a relevant issue’’, said a spokesperson.

Similarly, Buttrose often appears in the media and at events and makes herself available to meet with colleagues on request, they said.

The events of the past fortnight, however, show that the mood within the ABC is delicate. It has lost the swagger that should come with being Australia’s best-funded and mosttrusted media organisation.

‘THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION’

Unlike Buttrose, Williams is not a media doyen. However, he is no stranger to the publishing and broadcasting industries.

In an interview with the Herald on Wednesday, he seemed to struggle with how to pitch himself. He said he was ‘‘as qualified as anyone’’ for the job, then quickly insisted it was neither ‘‘grandiloquent, selfcongratulatory nor pompous’’ for him to say so.

He is presented with one handicap, however: he will not get to pick his managing director. On February 21 last year, 15 months before his contract would end, Anderson was reappointed by Buttrose’s ABC board unanimously until mid-2028.

‘‘The most important decision the board has is to appoint the managing director. If I were Kim, I might be a little pissed off,’’ ABC veteran

Jonathan Holmes said.

So what can Williams achieve as chair? Says Faine: ‘‘The board sets policy. They don’t direct programs, but they do set a culture.’’

Under Buttrose, he says, the culture was riskaverse. Complaints were viewed as ‘‘some sort of mark against you’’, rather than a measure that you were doing your job.

‘‘Kim’s not shy, so if he takes on that role to be the public champion for the ABC, well, great, go for it.’’

Williams has called for more arts coverage, more innovation, ‘‘freedom from bias’’, civility among staff, and more cultural diversity.

The ABC should not, he said, be loud in self-congratulation, rather ‘‘loud in its performance’’ and it should be ‘‘not only grandiloquent but calm, measured and authoritative’’.

For now, he’s got the luxury of commenting from the outside. From March 6, he’ll be the man at the helm.

SMH 27/01/2024

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