Vic IT Minister requests inquiry into “grave allegations” of ABC NBN gag

By
Renai LeMay
-
23

news Victoria’s Innovation Minister has written to the ABC’s Managing Director requesting a meeting and internal investigation regarding what he described as “grave allegations” that the broadcaster had gagged its former technology editor Nick Ross from reporting on the National Broadband Network.

You can find the full letter from Victorian Minister for Small Business, Innovation & Trade in the state’s Labor Government Philip Dalidakis to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott in PDF format here. Dalidakis today released the letter on public interest grounds. It is likely to have been the eventual subject of a Freedom of Information request.

Over the past several weeks, Ross has made a number of public statements through sites such as Reddit, New Matilda and PC & Tech Authority claiming that the ABC prevented him from publishing articles critical of the Coalition’s controversial National Broadband Network policy.

Ross had served as the broadcaster’s editor of its Technology & Games sub-site from 2010 before resigning his position several weeks ago. The journalist came under fire from other media outlets and political figures such as then-Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2013, after he published a number of articles heavily critical of Turnbull’s rival NBN policy. He has published little on the subject since.

However, the ABC has denied it gagged Ross, telling BuzzFeed news that the journalist had been warned to take the role of a “reporter”, rather than an “advocate” and highlighting the ABC’s editorial policies. A spokesperson for the broadcaster added that Ross had been invited to contribute to the ABC’s business coverage, including on NBN issues, after the Technology & Games sub-site was scheduled to be shut down, but that Ross had declined.

In Dalidakis’ letter, the Minister said Ross’s claim that he had been gagged due to concerns about the views of Malcolm Turnbull (then holding the Communications portfolio for the Coalition) about the ABC’s coverage of the NBN issue was “particularly concerning”.

Dalidakis noted that Ross’s claims were not the first time that the issue of the ABC’s coverage of the NBN had arisen, with the issue arising in Senate Estimates in early 2013 about the prominence given to Turnbull in ABC coverage.

It is likely that Dalidakis had an inside window into some of the views of the previous Labor Government into the ABC’s coverage of NBN issues.

From January 2011 through May 2012, Dalidakis served as the deputy chief of staff to Senator Stephen Conroy, then the long-serving Communications Minister in the Rudd/Gillard Labor administration.

In his letter this week, Dalidakis additionally noted that the ABC’s Promise Tracker continued to refer to key election promises by the Coalition on the NBN as “in progress”.

This came despite “the admission by Mr Turnbull that the Government will be unable to deliver their promise that all Australians will have access to minimum download speeds of 25 megabits by 2016,” Dalidakis wrote.

“The ABC plays a vital role in Australia’s political landscape. As a public broadcaster, you have a statutory obligation to gather and present news and information impartially. This duty underpins the trust Australians have in the ABC as a credible and trustworthy source of information that will help them understand the issues and make up their own minds about where they stand.”

Dalidakis said he was aware that the ABC’s Media Watch show had criticised Ross’s work as partisan.

“To say that an element of a policy claim is false is not, however, the same thing as advocating the alternative,” he said. “This does create a challenge for organisations like the ABC, as the line can at times appear blurred, but good journalism does not consist of simply repeating a politician’s claims without examining their veracity.”

Dalidakis stated that Victorians had been negatively affected by Turnbull’s decision to follow the controversial ‘Multi-Technology Mix’ model for the NBN.

For the reasons he outlined, including Ross’s “grave allegations”, Dalidakis told ABC Managing Director Mark Scott: “I would ask you to launch an internal investigation into the matters Mr Ross has raised, as well as to meet with me at your earliest convenience to discuss these allegations.”

Image credit: Office of Philip Dalidakis

Related posts:

  1. ‘Appalling treatment’: Vic IT minister to take Ross’s cause to ABC MD
  2. Now Jason Clare writes to ABC over Nick Ross ‘gag’
  3. Turnbull requests Labor’s secret NBN docs
  4. ‘ABC did not gag Nick Ross’: MD Mark Scott tells Senate (full video)
  5. Watch: Turnbull implies he complained to ABC about “failed” NBN coverage

23 COMMENTS

  1. And nothing will come of it sadly, You only have to look at the ABC News website to know that the day after the election there has been no editorial on the NBN.

    Renai thanks for keeping this in the crosshairs.

  2. There won’t be an investigation, Scott and his successor are both liberals and the board has been stacked with them too!

    • Unfortunately, that is probably true….and yet to assume that this ABC “Policy” would not be used to “Gag” or at least “control” journalists would be highly ignorant of how they operate. You will not find a smoking gun but you will find plenty of smokescreens…..

  3. Yeah, ask one of the key people responsible for editorial policy that resulted in such gagging to run an internal investigation into. I can’t see anything going wrong there…

    The closest thing we have with enough muscle for the job is a Royal Commission. Or a criminal investigation, but there’s nothing criminal going on here that falls within police jurisdiction. This needs a thorough impartial, external investigation that can’t be stoenewalled.

  5. Yes, be a reporter. Leave your brain at the door and have realise that you’re not allowed an opinion (even if well researched) on tech.

  6. In his letter this week, Dalidakis additionally noted that the ABC’s Promise Tracker continued to refer to key election promises by the Coalition on the NBN as “in progress”.

    This came despite “the admission by Mr Turnbull that the Government will be unable to deliver their promise that all Australians will have access to minimum download speeds of 25 megabits by 2016,” Dalidakis wrote.

    The ABC Promise tracker on the NBN is updated regularly, but it can only be updated when the Coalition or the NBN Co publicly releases changes to the NBN, not sure what the timeline problem is or what category the Innovation Minister thinks it should be in.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-27/nbn-complete-by-2019-promise-check/5546884

    Dalidakis stated that Victorians had been negatively affected by Turnbull’s decision to follow the controversial ‘Multi-Technology Mix’ model for the NBN.

    In what way are Victorians negatively affected?

    I assume he means Victorians on any alternative infrastructure except the few that got onto Labors FTTP after six years of NBN control before they were booted out of Government in 2013.

    • Sorry? NBN Co was incorporated in 2007, was it?

      I’d like to remind you, for the billionth time, Alain, about the requirement for comments to be factually accurate. Your continued repetition of factually inaccurate statements undermines the quality of discussion on Delimiter.

      • Rizz,

        I never referenced when the NBN Co was incorporated, I have no idea what point you are making, unless you have no point beyond just a mindless attempt at a diversion because you don’t like the way it is going.

        • You do realize that the Coalition have been in control of the actual rollout longer than Labor has. I know you like to include the trial and period before that as part of the rollout, but by that logic Turnbull has been rolling out the MTM now for about 6 years.

        • “… Labors FTTP after six years of NBN control before they were booted out of Government in 2013”

          Six years until 2013 makes the inception of the NBN 2007 according to you, and there was no NBN prior to incorporation of NBN Co. That’s what I was talking about. It was a direct reference to the mindless drivel (if that’s how you wish to talk to one another) you had written. There was no NBN in 2007. Even when there was an NBN, the suggestion that somehow it was unreasonable for people to have not been connected to it by 2013, long before the Transit Network was complete, with Telstra delaying rollout by a year due to the asbestos, with the LNP delaying passing of necessary legislation by nine months, by Telstra delaying negotiations by nearly two years, with the rollout required to connect over eight million premises within a two year window of actual construction is totally, utterly ludicrous. Are you actually conscious of the little thought bubbles that ooze from between your ears and slime their way through your fingers into your keyboard? Because you are living in a fairy land of the ridiculously impossible, my friend. Seriously, if you think your arguments are factual, reasonable or in any way sane, you should seek professional help, because being that deluded suggests there is something dangerously wrong with your biochemistry.

          Oh and Rizz is someone else entirely. Or is it too difficult remembering /referring to different people by different names these days, so it’s easiest if you just call everyone the same thing? Rizz is an odd choice, but then you’re an odd little hobbit, so fair play to you.

          • unless you have no point beyond just a mindless attempt at a diversion because you don’t like the way it is going.

            I was right the first time.

          • Mindless attempt at diversion? You wrote “… Labors FTTP after six years of NBN control before they were booted out of Government in 2013.” That is factually incorrect and deliberately misleading. How is calling you out on your falsehoods a ‘distraction’? You’re attempting to distract from the fact that you are so blatantly dishonest by being obtuse and avoiding anything anyone ever writes that is critical of your fundamentally flawed, tenuous grasp on reality.

            I will point out that your post goes completely against numerous rules Renai has committed to as basic requirements for commenting on Delimiter – your arguments fly in the face of facts and reason and you’re being needlessly personal, rude and obnoxious. You bring nothing of value to the discussion – I fail to see why you continue to be allowed to comment.

    • “NBN Co confirms 2020 timetable.”

      But then

      “Government commits to completion ‘as soon as possible'”

      The promise tracker kind of contradicts itself. No date promised, but it will be finished by 2020? Whilst both can be true, IF it is finished beforehand or on the 2020 deadline, it is still a contradiction because both are labeled promises.
      Nor has it updated itself on others. Final telstra deal approval promise? Happened already, but not updated from pending.
      So whilst it is nice to have a source of the promises, it is by no means complete, nor is it upto date.

Comments are closed.