In a speech delivered yesterday afternoon at the National Press Club, ABC chairman James Spigelman announced that Aunty will commission four additional independent audits a year to detect for traces of impartiality in the broadcaster’s reporting on issues like the federal election and on topics like asylum seekers in an effort to curb frequently levelled allegations of systematic bias.
Former BBC chief editorial policy advisor Andrea Wills has almost completed the first external audit, which will be made available to the public and assesses the impartiality of ABC radio interviews conducted with erstwhile Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott during the 2013 Federal Election. A second editorial audit conducted by a yet to be confirmed external party will then examine the network’s treatment of the year’s contentious asylum seeker debate.
“Since my appointment I have naturally been concerned with the frequency of allegations of a lack of impartiality,” Spiegelman told his contemporaries and assembled Haters at the Club. “I do not accept that it is systematic, but I do accept that it sometimes occurs. Every news and current affairs program endeavours to ensure balance, whilst avoiding the pitfall of irrelevant dullness.”
