Bolt complaint gets nowhere. An attempt by New Matilda national affairs correspondent (and Crikey arts writer) Ben Eltham to force News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt to retract a statement viewed by some as a denial of the Stolen Generation has come to naught, with the Press Council today informing him that his complaint would be proceeding no further.
Bolt wrote, in July last year on his blog, that “no one to this day has been able to name even 10 of the children allegedly stolen by officials just for being Aborigines. Even the courts cannot find them, for all the activists now appointed to the judiciary.”
Eltham, in a complaint lodged in August 2015, said this was “demonstrably untrue”, referring to a number of public collections of stories of the Stolen Generation to prove his point, as well as a list of 260 names Robert Manne sent to Andrew Bolt in 2006. “Mr Bolt made a claim that is false and inaccurate … He should retract the statement and apologise to his readers for misleading.”
But in a response from the Press Council director of complaints Paul Nangle, Eltham was told the executive director had decided not to proceed with the complaint, and that a letter to the editor published in the Herald Sun earlier this month (at the facilitation of the Press Council) was enough to address the matter.
In addressing the complaint, Bolt’s publication the Herald Sun argued that Bolt didn’t dispute the fact that Aboriginal children were removed from their homes, but merely questioned the motivation behind this. From the letter sent to Eltham:
“The publication said the article makes a point which is ‘often overlooked in connection with the stolen generations narrative … that Aboriginal children were wrongly removed from their parents simply because they were Aboriginal, when in fact they were removed and provided with welfare and foster care in circumstances where they needed it for their own welfare”.
Nangle added that the Council holds opinion articles to be “entitled to express robust, and at times, provocative views”.
The matter, the letter concluded, was now closed.
Eltham told Crikey this morning that the aforementioned letter, by former director of the New South Wales Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme Marilyn Hoey, offers evidence that Bolt had gotten the facts wrong on the issue, which should have been considered by the Press Council:
“Hoey writes that she had ‘unprecedented access’ to the New South Wales government’s records, which were examined ‘forensically.’ She states that ‘I can say without reservation that there are extensive records showing Aboriginal children were removed from their families just for being Aboriginal or, in the language of those records, for being ‘half-caste’. Surely the letter from Marilyn Hoey, a former director of the New South Wales Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme, cannot truly be ‘balance’, in the sense of balancing differing opinions or views. Rather, the letter directly and specifically rebuts Bolt’s statement of fact, contending that what he wrote was inaccurate and misleading. Despite this, the Press Council’s Executive Director John Pender ‘has decided not to proceed further’.
“Bolt and Hoey cannot both be right. If the Press Council’s standards of accuracy are to mean anything at all, then the finding for Bolt suggests that the Press Council does not accept the accuracy of Hoey’s letter, despite citing it as a reason for not proceeding with the complaint.”
Eltham adds that he was disappointed with the process — he claims he wasn’t contacted at any stage between lodging a complaint and having it rejected this morning. — Myriam Robin
Summers looking for investors. Digital magazine Anne Summers Reports is in”discussions with potential partners”, in hopes of obtaining “the kind of investment that will allow us to resume regular publishing”, Anne Summers told subscribers yesterday afternoon.
The last issue of the magazine was published in August last year. Summers hopes investment will allow the resumption of the regular schedule of six issues a year.
“It is likely to take some time to address all the issues involved,” Summers wrote. “At the same time, I have a pressing deadline for a very overdue book. I could call this situation an awkward problem or I could decide that, instead, it is an opportunity …
“So I am asking for your further patience. I do hope — and expect — that the wait will be worthwhile.”
ASR was launched by the veteran editor and influential Australian feminist in November 2012, in a bid to deliver journalism that’s, to quote Summers, “sane, factual and relevant”. “I came up with those words after reading The Australian one day,” she said at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival last year. “We try to do old-fashioned journalism with a magazine sensibility.” She said the magazine had 15,500 “subscribers”, though it’s free to sign up and read.
The business model, at least when Summers discussed it last year, was for events to fund the cost of publication. While the distribution costs of a digital magazine are minimal, Summers pays her writers and managing editor “modest salaries”, using money raised from ticket sales to events with those covered in the magazine. Previous events have included two public sessions with Julia Gillard shortly after she lost the prime ministership, and with former Army chief (now Australian of the year) David Morrison.
“We need to raise $20,000 to pay for each issue,” Summers said last year. “That has been a struggle — some issues are harder than others.” — Myriam Robin
Anti-extremist intervention on the cheap. The launch of SBS’ new 24-hour Arabic language radio channel, intended partly to fight the growth of Islamic extremism in Australia, came despite SBS having secured no extra funding from the Australian government for the initiative.
SBS’ managing director Michael Ebeid told Parliament late last year that the multicultural broadcaster was “engaging” with ministers and government departments on how it can play a role in Australia’s efforts to combat the radicalisation of Muslim youth.
“Whilst we have had, and are currently having, discussions on possible opportunities for SBS to do more to support social cohesion as a way to counter radicalisation, it is incorrect to state that we have made formal submissions for funding that have been rejected,” he wrote in a letter to Senators.
Crikey pondered whether any aforementioned funding had come through, but an SBS spokesperson told us this morning the channel wasn’t being funded specifically by the government. “It is quite a low cost initiative and is being funded through internal cost savings and re-using existing infrastructure and digital radio spectrum,” a spokesperson said.
“For instance the daily Breakfast program that will feature on SBS Arabic24, is already a part of the SBS Radio analogue schedule, and will simulcast onto SBS Arabic24. SBS PopAraby is also one of our existing programs that will now move to the new station as well.”
In a speech in Parliament last night, Ebeid that given “the growing concern around youth radicalisation, fundamentalism, this channel, I think, will provide a great opportunity for Australian Arabic communities to come together”. But the official announcement this morning played down this aspect of the channel’s focus, highlighting instead the growth of Arabic speaking communities in Australia.
SBS Arabic24 is being launched on a 12 month trial and will be reviewed in 2017, the statement said. As well as local content, it’ll also pull in content from the BBC’s Arabic service. — Myriam Robin
Front page of the day. Insiders goes international. We guess the Post’s Aussie editor-in-chief Col Allan still watches …
The sheer hypocrisy of a Capitalist media entity such as Crikey even speaking on this issue takes not only the cake but also a large chain of cake shops as well.