ABC chair Ita Buttrose has condemned the “abhorrent and unacceptable” online abuse that drove veteran indigenous journalist Stan Grant to quit as Q+A host.
Buttrose told ABC radio on Friday that there was “a lesson for the entire community by Stan Grant stepping back”, as she called for a return to civility in public life.
“You can disagree with someone without having to abuse them,” Ms Buttrose said.
Grant announced a week ago that he was standing down as host of the ABC talk show, and stepping back from media roles, due to what he labelled as “relentless racial filth”.
On Thursday, NSW Police said they had charged a 41-year-old Fairfield Heights man with making threats against Grant. He is due in a Sydney court next week.
Ms Buttrose said the public reaction to Grant’s revelations had been “one of the most widespread outpourings of public commentary on public life that we’ve seen for a long time”.
“I think it’s telling me that people are sick of the abusive and toxic culture that pervades our public discourse, whether it’s sport, social issues, politics,” she said.
“We are sadly living in a time, actually, when people think it’s OK to abuse others with whom they disagree.”
Ms Buttrose said reflection was needed on the “abhorrent and unacceptable behaviour” on social media, and how to return to civility in public life.
“We can’t have a proper discussion in Australia anymore. And I think Australians want to return to civility in public life,” she said.
“That’s the important lesson from Stan and I know from the many emails I’ve received that Stan is held in very high regard by so many people.”
Ms Buttrose said she was appalled by the abuse levelled at Grant.
“It’s unacceptable. … If I’d known earlier, I would have spoken to him about it. But I didn’t know and I don’t think many of us knew until fairly late in the piece,” she said.
“I think it’s very important that we that we provide that support to Stan that I said and that everybody reflects about social media. Is this the sort of world we want to live in? It’s unacceptable.”
She said ABC audience research showed 75 per cent of people thought the broadcaster’s content reflected the diversity of Australia.
“But I think what management needs to do is make sure that we support the people who make that content when they are subject to racist behaviour,” she said.
Ms Buttrose’s intervention comes after ABC managing director David Anderson told Senate estimates this week that threats and online trolling against ABC staff was increasing.
He flagged a review of whether the organisation was doing enough to support its employees and said he was worried about the ABC’s public-facing staff.
“We’re coming to a precipice here, particularly in the discussion around how we can protect our people,” Mr Anderson said on Wednesday.
He said a segment with Grant on the ABC’s coronation coverage had sparked about 1800 public complaints. Hundreds of those were racist attacks, while others blasted the coronation discussion as poorly timed.
“Quite a lot of it was not in good faith,” he said.
“I think the time for dignified silence is over, I think for our people we need to be certainly more public supportive of them as well as what we do internally.”
Mr Anderson also said he was especially worried about Indigenous staff at the Voice referendum approaches.
He has previously apologised to Grant, while ABC journalists in newsrooms across the country rallied to support the now departed Q&A host.
Mr Stevens said Grant had been subjected to relentless racism for a long time for doing his job, but the coronation coverage led to a particular spike in racial vitriol.
“We’re talking about a really large volume and torrent of racial abuse and threats to Stan and his family over the course of a number of days,” he said.
-with AAP
