ABC rejects claims of antisemitic bias ahead of fronting royal commission
The ABC has rejected “allegations that its journalism has contributed to antisemitism or social division” ahead of ABC and SBS executives speaking to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion on Thursday.
An investigation is expected to be launched over allegations of bias in public broadcasters’ coverage of events related to the Middle East.
The ABC released a statement ahead of the trial saying its “reporting was evidence-based, fair, impartial and consistent with its Charter obligations”.
ABC editor-in-chief Gavin Fang and ombudsman Fiona Cameron will chair the commission on Thursday morning.
They will be followed by SBS’s Director of Audio and Language Content David Thanh Man Tue Hua, Director of News and Current Affairs Amanda Wicks and ombudsman Amy Stockwell.
Gavin Fang will represent ABC at the commission on Thursday. (ABC News: Tobias Hunt)
Submissions ‘highly critical of publishers’
The commission’s current hearing, held in Sydney, focuses on antisemitism and hate speech online and in traditional media and broadcasting.
In his opening statement last week, counsel assisting Richard Lancaster SC said the ABC and SBS “occupy a particularly important, trusted position in the Australian media landscape”.
Mr. Lancaster said the organizations’ “statutes, regulations and policies bind them to high standards of accuracy, impartiality and balance.”
He said broadcasters would be asked questions about their policies and management regarding “allegations of antisemitism and the effectiveness of those measures”.
“This would include asking journalists whether there is any demonstrable anti-Semitic bias in their reporting or in the editorial policies of these media outlets.”
Fiona Cameron will join the ABC as its ombudsman. (Provided)
Mr Lancaster told the commission that some of the views he received were “highly critical” of the ABC and SBS’s coverage of the Middle East conflict.
“There have been complaints that the ABC and SBS produce inaccurate or unbalanced coverage, both in their choice of news, focus, and the interviews they produce.”
Mr. Lancaster said.
Submissions submitted to the commission via its website have not yet been published, but some commission witnesses criticized the ABC in their statements.
Amanda Wicks will be among three representatives from SBS at the royal commission. (ABC News)
Léa Levy, who immigrated to Australia from France in 2015, spoke about her experience with antisemitism and told the commission that during the Gaza war, the ABC “made no mention of the suffering of Israelis”.
FMichael Gawenda, former editor-in-chief of the Age newspaper, claimed the ABC and other broadcasters were “minimizing antisemitism”.
“They published writings by people who claimed that this concept of antisemitism was an idea made up by a powerful lobby that sought to cover up and silence criticism of Israel.”
In a statement released on Wednesday evening, ABC strongly refuted such claims.
“The ABC has devoted extensive coverage to the rise of antisemitism in Australia and included all relevant perspectives,” the statement said. The statement was included.
“The ABC’s reporting consistently focused on the experiences of Jewish Australians while providing context to wider social and political issues.”
ABC’s coverage of the Middle East caused an increase in complaints after October 7, 2023. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Complaints increased after October 7
Australia’s commercial networks were not asked to take part in the commission, which was established after the terrorist attack in which 15 people were killed during the Jewish holiday Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach last December.
The ABC asked the royal commission questions about why only the ABC and SBS were asked to appear.
In a statement, the commission said it had called on the ABC and SBS to provide evidence “following concerns raised by members of the Jewish community in Australia about the reporting of sentiment and bias”.
In her speech at the opening of the third block last week, Commissioner Virginia Bell said that the commission’s duty is not to “resolve individual complaints.”
The former Supreme Court judge said the commission’s focus was rather on “the adequacy of broadcasters’ complaints-handling mechanisms, including allegations of bias in the reporting of events related to the state of Israel in the Middle East.”
Virginia Bell said it was not the commission’s role to “resolve individual complaints.” (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
ABC’s coverage of the Middle East has seen an increase in the number of complaints made to the company’s ombudsman.
These came to a head in the months following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza.
The ABC said it had received more than 7,000 complaints about content and editorial standards in 2023-24, a five-year high.
Almost half of these, or 49 percent, were attributable to the Israel-Gaza war, the broadcaster said.
4,192 content complaints were handled by the ABC ombudsman office in 2024-25, of which 26 percent related to Middle East coverage.
The ABC said that to date the ombudsman had found breaches in five ABC news stories about the Middle East: four breaches of accuracy in news content, including an episode of Triple j Hack, and breaches of impartiality and accountability, relating to an episode of The Hip Hop Show on Triple j.
The broadcaster said no bias complaints had been upheld by the ombudsman regarding ABC News’ coverage of the Middle East.
The difficulty of defining antisemitism
The ABC and SBS are also expected to be questioned at the commission about why they decided not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
The IHRA’s definition that “Antisemitism is a particular perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred towards Jews” was accepted by both the commission and the Australian government, but has been the subject of debate.
Opponents argue it is used to stifle free speech and legitimate criticism.
The ABC and SBS said they were instead relying on their existing editorial guidelines on hate speech.
The broadcaster said in a statement that the IHRA’s basic definition was broadly consistent with the ABC’s approach, but “the IHRA’s examples have been controversial and in some cases there has been criticism that they risk conflating legitimate political criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”
Jillian Segal was called to the commission to express her concerns about the ABC and SBS’s reporting. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
The Australian government’s Special Representative to Counter Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, strongly supports the IHRA definition of antisemitism and has consistently called on public bodies to adopt it.
The commission called Ms Segal to express concerns about the ABC and SBS broadcasts.
He will testify before broadcasters when the hearings begin at 10am (AEST) on Thursday.
Criticism from all sides
While the commission’s focus was on allegations of antisemitism, the broadcaster has also been accused of being overly sensitive to complaints from Australian Jews.
In a damning judgment in the Antoinette Lattouf case last September, Judge Darryl Rangiah found that the broadcaster had “badly let the Australian public down by ignominiously surrendering the right of its employee, Ms Lattouf, to appease a lobby group”.
Judge Darryl found Ms Lattouf was unlawfully terminated when she was removed from the air in response to what he described as an “orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists”.
According to the ABC, 51 percent of complaints in the six months to December 2025 claimed that the ABC’s Israel-Gaza coverage was generally pro-Palestinian, while 47 percent claimed it was generally pro-Israel.
“This suggests that perceptions of bias arise from strongly held views across the community rather than systematic editorial favoritism,” the publisher said.
