The ABC's centre of gravity

However, I am pleased to note that this culture does not dominate all parts of the ABC. In News and Current Affairs, PM is fair, balanced, impartial and very professional. I think that Lateline casts a wide net and is generally fair and balanced, as is The World Today. The ABC should not advocate causes left, right or politically correct but should be a repository for a genuine diversity of views in addition to being accurate and impartial.

If the ABC Board takes action on these issues, it is not “interfering” with the ABC but doing its job as required by the ABC Act on behalf of the taxpayers of Australia. Almost every organisation is run by a Board that leads and oversees the activities of that organisation. At least in the world as we know it, they are not run by workers’ collectives.

The ABC Act (1.a.i) obliges the ABC to broadcast “programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community”. The ABC Board has a vital statutory role here.

The ABC Act (8.1c) says “it is the duty of the Board … to ensure that the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism”. Genuine diversity at the ABC, reflecting a wide range of views and subject matter in line with the diversity of the Australian population, together with making certain that high journalistic standards are kept to are tasks that the ABC Board has a clear duty to perform effectively. As Tony Wedgwood Benn, British Labor Minister of Technology, put it in 1969: “Broadcasting [is] too important to be left to the broadcasters”.

I think there has been more recognition of problems and potential problems in relation to political bias, culture and genuine diversity at the ABC recently, and that the chairman and managing director deserve to be commended on progress in a positive direction. However, I think that the root cause of the problem is the culture and I am afraid that the reverse long march through this institution still has a long way to go.