ABC sacking of journalist Emma Alberici – part of years of ABC management kowtowing to the Australian government
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ABC has for too long been unwilling to push back against interference – at its journalists’ expense, The Conversation Denis Muller
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne August 27, 2020 For those who watch the affairs of the ABC through the eyes of a critical friend, the removal of Emma Alberici, made public on August 21, is deeply disturbing.It is the climax to a destructive series of events that began more than two years ago and once again draws attention to two serious weaknesses in the ABC’s management arrangements. One is structural: the editor-in-chief is fatally compromised in that role by also being managing director. The managing director has corporate responsibilities that conflict with his or her editorial responsibilities every time the government tightens the financial screws………… after six years of cumulative budget cuts by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison administrations, the total effective reduction in ABC funding will amount to A$105.9 million per year by 2022. And as for defenders in cabinet, the present communications minister, Paul Fletcher, is as mute as a swan. Clearly all this has sapped morale. In September 2018, a dossier compiled by Michelle Guthrie was leaked, revealing an email in which Justin Milne, as chair of the ABC, told her to get rid of Alberici, declaring the government “hate her”. Over the preceding months, the government had repeatedly criticised stories Alberici had done in her role as chief economics correspondent. Guthrie’s dossier came to light in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald at a time when the ABC had decided to sack her. In the ensuing “firestorm” – Milne’s word – he was consumed as well. Read more: ABC inquiry finds board knew of trouble between Milne and Guthrie, but did nothing Milne had been concerned also with the work of political editor Andrew Probyn. He wanted Guthrie to “shoot” Probyn because the government hated him too and his continued presence was putting at risk half-a-billion dollars in funding for the ABC. Assuming Milne and Guthrie were telling the truth, there could not be a clearer instance of how the government was using funding to undermine the ABC’s editorial independence. The effects of this sustained intimidation are felt a long way down the ABC’s editorial food chain…….. There has been no sign the ABC’s journalists have been getting that kind of protection, least of all from the board. Instead, they are at the mercy of a vindictive government, urged on by its mates in News Corporation, which has a vested interest in weakening the ABC and shamelessly campaigns for exactly that. |
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