Antinuclear

Australian media: lies and distortions about a legitimate Aboriginal protest

That evening the WIN TV news repeatedly referred to “violence” and used other inflammatory terms so inaccurate as to amount to lies. The Canberra Times front page next day screamed “Australia’s day of disgrace”. There are disgraces involved, but the rowdy protest was not one.

 The media, unfortunately typically, reported inaccurately and used inflammatory language, thereby promoting division. 

Aussie Day ‘riot’: perspective and balance hard to find  The Drum, Geoff Davies, 30 Jan 12 The bias, hysteria and divisiveness of our public political conversation is never far from view, but this week I encountered it firsthand.

I watched outside as the Aboriginal protest unfolded at The Lobby restaurant on Australia Day. The event reported in the media and reacted to by many commentators is a lurid parody of what actually happened. Perspective and balance are hard to find.

The protest was not violent. It was certainly rowdy and confronting. The protesters chanted loudly and angrily, and some beat time on the glass walls of the restaurant. There was some pushing and shoving as the VIP cars finally moved out. Police on the day said there were”scuffles” and no arrests would be made.

For those inside the restaurant it would probably have been a bit
scary, but the Prime Minister and others stayed calm and were never
physically threatened. My partner and I were outside watching from
metres away and never felt concerned for our safety.
The most likely result of actual confrontation, in my estimation,
would have been angry people shouting in the faces of the PM or Mr
Abbott. Ms Gillard has had former Labor leader Mark Latham in her face
and survived.

That evening the WIN TV news repeatedly referred to “violence” and
used other inflammatory terms so inaccurate as to amount to lies. The
Canberra Times front page next day screamed “Australia’s day of
disgrace”. There are disgraces involved, but the rowdy protest was not
one.

The most dramatic images were not of violent protesters, but of a
rattled security man dragging the Prime Minister, quite unnecessarily,
as Mr Abbott’s less undignified gait makes clear……
Few seem to be able to put this episode in some perspective. A speaker
at the Tent Embassy earlier had made the point that there has never
been a legal basis for applying English law to Aborigines. We
dispossessed them in a genocidal invasion and unilaterally applied our
law.
An Indigenous man taken into a white court in the 1840s said he did
not acknowledge the authority of the court. There had been no
agreement to submit, no treaty, nothing. When the court said it would
apply English law anyway, the man’s lawyer said in that case the man
should be compensated, under English law, for the theft of his land.

You know there has never been any compensation, nor has the legal
situation fundamentally changed. The contemptuous white attitude of
the past persists today in the intervention in the Northern Territory,
which was imposed by Tony Abbott’s party and continued by the Prime
Minister’s party.

The intervention blatantly belies Abbott’s and Gillard’s claims that
things are better than 40 years ago and that most Australians have
respect for Indigenous people. Respect would involve looking together
for a way forward, not draconian and racist income management and
displacement from traditional country.

The whole point of the Tent Embassy was and is to confront white
Australia with these realities. A great wrong was done to Aborigines
and we still cannot find it in our hearts to treat them with respect
and deal with them as equals.

Many, including other Indigenous people who were not there, are
lamenting the confronting behaviour as harming the cause. Yes, it
would be better if everyone would sit down calmly and get real about
what has happened and what needs to be done. But perhaps the
protesters have a point that they are not listened to if they don’t
insert themselves in our faces….
Nor does burning the Australian flag count as destruction. It is a
symbol. A symbol of the white invasion and imposition of white law.
They make the same valid point as the elder in the 1840s – they do not
recognise its authority.

This episode exposes much that is unflattering about Australian
society. The media, unfortunately typically, reported inaccurately and
used inflammatory language, thereby promoting division. Many people,
including many in responsible positions, have reacted instantly and
irrationally…. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3798896.html

January 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, media