Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has joined fellow NSW MLC David Shoebridge and a few dozen protestors outside of News Corps‘ annual major advertiser conference in Sydney, accusing the media giant of fostering a corporate message that encourages racism and harm.
Protestors held signs inscribed with the message “stop hate speech” while conference attendees looked on over the hanging terrace of the ICC Convention Centre in Darling Harbour.
“Like so many other Muslim women I am tired, I am exhausted, and I’m still grieving,” said Faruqi.
“But you know what – I’m also getting angry. I am in despair and in hopelessness. It seems like the ears and the eyes of the media and politicians are still shut. And if they don’t listen now then when do you think they will?”
Faruqi said the media had largely failed in its reporting on Christchurch, referencing the decision made by multiple broadcasters to show segments of the footage from the attack, as well as a decision made by the ABC this week to livestream an entire Fraser Anning press conference.
“Are we focused enough on active right wing threats?” asked Faruqi. “Why isn’t the government enforcing existing laws on online threats? Why aren’t they passing new ones?”
Faruqi also attacked News Corp – accusing the company of being “a flag bearer of the dog whistling of racism” – and called on advertisers to pull money from the company.
“Right wing media is not just opportunity or profit driven – it is actually malicious. They have an agenda,” she said.
“The media is responsible for not only platforming but promoting hate… You need to know that your profit is built on a platform of hate.”
Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge was quick to mention that News Corp did employ good journalists, but that the corporate message of their employer was encouraging racism and harm.
“We know that politicians won’t come out and call out News Corp because of the power it has,” he said. “But spreading a hateful message makes you complicit in the violence that follows.”
Imam Mohammad A Hadi, the Director of Muslim Youth Australia and Managing Director of Muslims Down Under, also spoke at the protest and insisted on a change in the narrative, calling Christchurch one of the darkest days in modern history.
“One thing that we did see from after this event is that there has been a lot of positivity coming out – but it shouldn’t have come out after the loss of 50 lives, 50 innocent souls, it should not require the loss of innocent blood for us to start understanding why we need to make a change,” he said.
Hadi quoted research from Western Sydney University’s Challenging Racism Project that he said found 48.6% of Australian citizens have negative sentiments towards Islam and Muslim Australians.
“Nearly 3,000 articles were published nation-wide per year speaking about Islam and Muslims alongside violence, terrorism, and radicalism,” he said.
“We must change this, we must come forward, so that we can change for the better.”
Freelance journalist Alex McKinnon, who organised the snap protest with the help of GetUp, thanked the crowd for turning up on a Wednesday afternoon.
“I hope we’re here next year,” he said. “And I hope there will be 10,000 of us.”
