The ABC’s managing director has issued an apology to Gina Rinehart after she threatened the public broadcaster with legal action over crude comments aired in its Race Around the World program.
The four-minute film, titled A Very Relaxing Video, ran on the documentary-reality show on 12 July and concluded with the film-maker, Kate McGuinness, making crude and offensive comments about Rinehart.
“When the revolution comes will you hide under the bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, to make one big sausage roll to make something out of nothing?” she said.
On Thursday, the ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, apologised to Rinehart and said the national broadcaster would change its editorial policies.
“While the Ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations,” Marks said in a statement.
“The ABC apologises to Mrs Rinehart and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film.
“As part of our review of this matter, we have considered whether the guidance in the ABC Editorial Policies adequately reflects current community expectations. We have also considered whether the relevant guidance sufficiently distinguishes between news and non-news content. As a result, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence.”
Marks said the film had been edited on the ABC’s platforms to remove the material in question.
It came after McGuinness issued an apology last Thursday, saying it wasn’t her intention to promote violence.
“My writing is cartoonish and always satirical. Unfortunately, jokes do not land with everyone. Its purpose was never to be taken literally,” she said in a statement uploaded to the ABC’s website.
On Friday, the ABC confirmed it had received legal letters from Hancock Prospecting and said the ABC Ombudsman was “independently reviewing audience complaints” in relation to the episode.
Hancock Prospecting first wrote to the ABC board on 23 July. The company said the ABC was asked to “immediately remove” the segment from all of its platforms; publicly apologise to Rinehart; and “undertake a comprehensive investigation” into how it was approved and published.
“One week has now elapsed,” it said in a statement last week.
“The ABC’s Board and senior management have provided no substantive public response, nor any substantive response to Hancock or Mrs Rinehart, and have taken no steps to remove the material from ABC platforms, despite widespread public condemnation and the serious risks its publication and continued publication pose to Mrs Rinehart.”
According to Hancock, it sent legal letters to the ABC’s chair, Kim Williams; deputy chair, Lisa Caffery; and its managing director, Hugh Marks, informing them that they had been formally placed on notice over “detailed allegations of serious contraventions of multiple Australian criminal and civil laws arising from the ABC’s publication and continued publication of the material”.
The media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma), had previously said it would wait until the results of the ABC’s processes before making a decision on any next steps.
Hancock Prospecting has been approached for comment.
