Q+A episode was ABC’s most complained about over alleged Israel bias
More than half of the issues raised in ABC content complaints in 2023 related to the Israel-Gaza war, the latest report from the public broadcaster’s ombudsman has found.
The report, released on Thursday morning, is the first full-year edition from Fiona Cameron, who was appointed as ABC’s independent ombudsman in August 2022. It reveals 24,533 total complaints received across the 12 months ending in December 2023.
Patricia Karvelas with the Q+A panel on November 13 (from left): Mark Leibler, Dave Sharma, Francesca Albanese, Tim Watts and Nasser Mashni.Credit: ABC
Of the total complaints, 19,313 were general complaints, while 5220 were complaints relating to specific content. In the content complaints, 6539 separate issues were raised which Cameron said was a five-year high, owing to an organised campaign about a single episode of Q+A in November, alleging bias in favour of Israel.
Nearly a third of the issues raised in content complaints related to the single episode, while 11 per cent related to coverage of the Indigenous Voice to parliament.
The ombudsman’s office investigated 56 per cent of content complaints across the year, with 90 per cent not upheld, meaning they were dismissed.
About 10 per cent of content complaints were either marked as “resolved” or “upheld”. Removing the multiple complaint issues relating to the Q+A episode, this figure rose to 19 per cent.
The episode, which aired on November 13 was filmed with no studio audience, as well as being prerecorded.
The panel consisted of host Patricia Karvelas, alongside Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council chairman Mark Leibler, Liberal politician and a former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Labor MP Tim Watts and Australian Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni. There was police presence at the ABC’s Melbourne studio on the day of filming.
Cameron cleared the ABC of bias in the episode two weeks later.
Complaints against the episode alleged the program was partial, favoured an Israeli
perspective, and included harmful or offensive content, the report said. The ombudsman’s office determined the significant volume of complaints were the result of a campaign due to many being identically worded.
Q+A was by some distance the most complained-about program, with 2100 total complaints. ABC News Online was second with 923 complaints.
Across the top 10 most complained about programs, 72 per cent of complaints related to the ABC’s coverage of the Gaza war.
The outlier in the broadcaster’s coverage of the war was an episode of The Hip Hop Show on triple j, which the ABC said made up 20 of the 92 total content complaints it found to be in breach of its editorial standards.
During the episode, a song titled Long Live Palestine was played, which was supported by pro-Palestinian commentary. An ombudsman’s report found it to be in breach of the ABC’s standards for due impartiality and for the responsible management of controversial program material.
A further 22 complaints related to a report on ABC’s AM in January that claimed there were elements of white supremacy at an Alice Springs community forum on social unrest in the town. ABC boss David Anderson acknowledged the mistakes in the radio report in 2023.
Aside from the complaints upheld, Cameron said the broadcaster’s coverage across 2023 was “professional, wide-ranging and reflective of newsworthy events”.
“Reporting from an international war zone on developing situations is challenging, so assessing the accuracy of what is broadcast at a specific time means considering what information was available at that time,” she said.
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