Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

The ABC strives for accuracy and avoids contentious language where necessary and appropriate.

The ABC News Style Guide advises journalists to "rely first on facts and clear descriptions of events, rather than labels that may seem too extreme or too soft, depending on your point of view." Accordingly, the ABC's approach is to ensure that a story is accurate, and language used in it appropriate.

It is entirely appropriate to refer to an individual or group engaged in the activities described in these stories as a militant. The Macquarie Dictionary defines the term as: "combative; aggressive, someone engaged in warfare or strife." It may also be appropriate to refer to persons involved as terrorists, if it can be determined that the militant action was intentionally designed to create terror in the community rather than, say, to strike at a particular military target. Where this occurs, it does not make the original story inaccurate, biased or misleading.