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) the Israeli Knesset has recently enacted two highly controversial and widely reported bills: (i) the Loyalty Oath Bill, which stipulated that all future non-Jews applying for Israeli citizenship would be required to swear loyalty to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and (ii) the NGO Funding Transparency Bill, which requires non government organisations (NGOs) funded by foreign governments to disclose and publicise their sources of funding;

(c) the ABC has, on multiple occasions, sought out and reported the views of several of the NGOs affected by the transparency legislation, and that these ABC reports have not disclosed or commented on the NGOs' sources of funding; and

(d) the ABC reported on the Loyalty Oath Bill but it did not report on the NGO Funding Transparency Bill:

(1) Can an explanation be provided by the ABC as to why the exercise of its judgements of news value and public interest resulted in different decisions in these two cases.

(2) Does the ABC consider that information on funding sources can be highly relevant in assessing the objectivity and impartiality of commentators.