Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, upon notice, on 8 April 2011:

Given that:

(a) the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has previously advised that '[a]cross all news and current affairs coverage, its decisions about reportage are guided by judgements of news value and public interest';

(b) Ms Anna Baltzer, Dr Jeff Halper, Colonel Richard Kemp and Ms Nitsana Darshan-Leitner are all prominent commentators on Israel-related matters, and that Ms Baltzer and Dr Halper are highly critical of Israel whereas Colonel Kemp and Ms Darshan-Leitner are strongly supportive, and that all have visited Australia within the past several years; and

(c) in relation to Israel, neither Colonel Kemp nor Ms Darshan-Leitner received any ABC coverage whereas Ms Baltzer and Dr Halper received substantial ABC coverage:

Can an explanation be provided by the ABC as to why the exercise of its judgements of news value and public interest resulted in such widely disparate ABC coverage in the above cases.