ABC’s online news content was the source of more complaints about the national broadcaster than Q+A, News Breakfast and Insiders combined, the ABC ombudsman’s first report has revealed.
The report, released on Tuesday by inaugural ombudsman Fiona Cameron, found that 45% of content complaints to the ombudsman between January and June this year were related to perceived bias, with 4% related to balance, 26% factual inaccuracy, 11% inappropriate content and 8% unfair treatment.
Over the past three years from 2020 to 2022, online news resulted in 2,474 complaints, compared with the next highest 7pm news with 673, 7.30 with 643, News Breakfast with 579 and Q+A with 439.
The ombudsman said online news was more prolific and readily accessible and shared across networks, which is why it had more complaints. The report said 39% (956) of the complaints about online news were investigated, with 401 resolved (368) or found to be in breach (33).
Across the board, around 2,000 complaints received between 2020 and 2022 were related to Covid coverage, with allegations that the ABC was biased towards or against government health advice, and that anti-vaccine perspectives were presented without being adequately challenged.
In the first six months of 2023, ABC News online received 394 complaints, 72% of which were claims of inaccuracies or bias.
7.30 received 137 complaints, including 51 that an interview with Russia’s ambassador to Australia displayed anti-Russian bias. Another 20 complained that in an interview with the Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, about the Let Women Speak event earlier this year, a Melbourne woman who was not named in the segment had been defamed. The complaints weren’t upheld for either segment.
There were 86 complaints to Landline alleging industry bias over three stories covering the live sheep export trade.
There were 66 content complaints related to the Coronation. There were a total of 1,996 written complaints about the broadcast, the majority questioning the ABC’s decision to have a panel discussion ahead of the proceedings.
Insiders had 48 complaints, the majority of which were regarding comments made by ABC journalist Dana Morse in late June that for some protesting against 26 January, the motivation was protest against invasion and genocide, including “genocide of Aboriginal people that is ongoing today”. The ABC later clarified on its website that Morse had been describing the beliefs of the protesters, not the ABC.
ABC News’ Twitter account also fielded 40 complaints over a now-deleted tweet about the shooting of a Palestinian girl. The ABC deleted the tweet and re-headlined the story before the ombudsman had investigated.
The three-year average of complaints between 2020 and 2022 was 23,767, but only 15% of those related to content. Of those, 45% were investigated, with just 5% upheld and 15% resolved.
In the first six months of this year, the ombudsman received 11,440 complaints, with 13% related to content – 36% of those were investigated, with 8% upheld and 15% resolved.
