Tony Abbott attacks ABC for ‘taking everyone's side but Australia's’

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Prime minister takes issue with national broadcaster’s reporting on asylum seeker claims and ‘traitor' Edward Snowden

tony abbott
Tony Abbott wants the ABC to show some 'basic affection for the home team'. Photograph: Lucas Coch/AAP

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has mounted a fresh attack on the national broadcaster, suggesting the ABC instinctively took "everyone's side but Australia's" and should show "some basic affection for the home team".

Abbott took issue with the ABC's reporting of claims by asylum seekers of mistreatment at the hands of the Australian navy, saying journalists should give the navy the benefit of the doubt.

In an interview with conservative radio host Ray Hadley on Wednesday, Abbott also reaffirmed his concerns about the ABC's collaboration with Guardian Australia on the story that revealed Australian spy agencies’ past efforts to target the phones of the Indonesian president, his wife and inner circle. Those disclosures were based on documents provided by the former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The prime minister's comments add to complaints by conservative politicians and commentators of perceived left-wing bias at the ABC, amid demands in some quarters for funding cuts. Labor figures have previously accused the government of trying to bully the independent ABC to produce more favourable coverage.

Abbott’s remarks were triggered by Hadley’s complaint about the ABC’s recent stories in which asylum seekers claimed to have been mistreated and burned by Australian personnel during turnback operations at sea. Hadley said he and fellow "shock jock" Alan Jones faced regular attacks from the commercial broadcasting regulator, yet the ABC was not held accountable.

Abbott said he could understand the frustration “because at times there does appear to be a double standard in large swaths of our national life”.

“I want the ABC to be a straight news gathering and news reporting organisation and a lot of people feel at the moment the ABC instinctively takes everyone's side but Australia's,” the prime minister said.

"I was very worried and concerned a few months back when the ABC seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor, this gentleman Snowden, or this individual Snowden, who has betrayed his country and in the process has badly damaged other countries that are friends with the United States. Of course, the ABC didn't just report what he said; they took the lead in advertising what he said."

Earlier this month, the US president, Barack Obama, criticised Snowden for disclosing details of government surveillance but announced reforms to the National Security Agency and acknowledged the resulting debate would “make us stronger”.

Abbott said the ABC, like any other news organisation, was entitled to report matters for which there was credible evidence. "But you can't leap to be critical, you shouldn't leap to be critical of your own country, and you certainly ought to be prepared to give the Australian navy and its hard-working personnel the benefit of the doubt," he said.

Hadley said shocks jocks "who lean a bit to the right" faced sustained scrutiny from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, but "the other side of the fence, so the so-called left-leaning ABC" was left to its own devices.

Abbott replied that he thought there was "quite an issue of double standards" but he could not promise "that it's going to be fixed tomorrow". The prime minister was conscious of it and would call it as he saw it.

"I think it dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everyone's side but our own and I think it is a problem,” he said.

Abbott explicitly questioned the creation last year of the ABC's fact-checking unit to examine the truthfulness of politicians' public statements. The unit has previously disputed statements by both major parties.

Referring to increased costs, Abbott said: "There was the establishment of some fact checking entity inside the ABC a while back and surely that should just come naturally to any media organisation.”

Abbott said he would like the national broadcaster "to have a rigorous commitment to truth and at least some basic affection for the home team, so to speak".

The acting opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said Abbott "should stop complaining about media coverage and start behaving like a prime minister".

Plibersek said the ABC was a longstanding part of Australia's cultural fabric.

"From emergency broadcasts in times of trouble to coverage of the events that shape our nation, the ABC is there, free for all Australians," she said.

"Since it began, every government has been subject to the close scrutiny of the ABC and we should all welcome that."

The former Labor communications minister, Stephen Conroy, warned of "a systematic attack on the independence of the ABC".

Conroy, who was a frequent critic of News Corp news coverage, said the ABC had to abide by its independent charter. Anyone with concerns could make a complaint through the ABC's "proper
processes", he said.

The Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said Abbott had an obsession with secrecy and was "coming after the ABC".

"Here is a bloke who, after saying to everybody during the election campaign that it was fear mongering to suggest that he was going to come after the ABC, he's now gone to his best mates in commercial radio to launch an attack," she said.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, and defence and customs hierarchies rejected the claims about asylum seeker mistreatment that were aired on the ABC.

News Corp Australia on Tuesday published an email from an ABC researcher seeking navy personnel to speak on background about the burns claims, saying she was seeking further information because her “boss feels the allegations are likely to be untrue".

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, urged the ABC to "do the right thing" by making a clear statement if it now believed the allegations were "utterly unsubstantiated". Bishop said the ABC reporting had put a cloud over people's reputations.

An ABC spokeswoman said the key point to take from the leaked email was that the broadcaster continued to seek the facts. She said the ABC did not report the allegations "as fact" or express an editorial view in support of the claims or the denials.

"In a climate where official information about asylum seekers operations is scarce and hard to come by, the ABC makes no apologies for seeking as much information as it can from as many sources as it can it either verify or disprove the allegations at the centre of the story," the spokeswoman said.

Guardian Australia sought comment from the minister responsible for the ABC, Malcolm Turnbull, as to any potential government action over the bias claims. The communications minister's spokesman said internal programming and editorial decisions were the responsibility of the ABC board and executive.

"The parliament is required to ensure the ABC adheres to its charter, which includes a statutory obligation to be accurate and impartial in its news and current affairs programmes according to the recognised standards of objective journalism," Turnbull's spokesman said.

"The minister was pleased to hear ABC chairman James Spigelman announce a series of editorial audits, focusing on particular program topics, including asylum seekers, to be carried out this year."

The employment minister, Eric Abetz, who has previously pursued the ABC at Senate estimates hearings over bias claims, praised the national broadcaster's reports on alleged union misconduct in the construction industry, which aired this week.

"Let me say that the ABC and Fairfax Media have done a great public service in exposing the corruption and illegality on Australian construction sites," Abetz told reporters on Wednesday.

In early December, after the spying story controversy, the ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott, vigorously defended the national broadcaster against criticism.

“We are an independent media organisation and of course sometimes we will publish stories that politicians won’t be happy about. We are an independent media organisation. That’s the role we have to play,” Scott said at the time.