Today, in the second hour, we welcome journalist Chris Graham to the show. Chris is the founding editor of the National Indigenous Times and the recipient of the prestigious Walkley Award for Excellence in Indigenous Affairs reporting.
In the course of our interview Chris documents a range of unethical and downright deceitful practices engaged by ABC Lateline in their coverage of a scandal which indirectly led to the highy controversial and despised NT Intervention.
The “intervention” as it’s now simply called, was a combination of draconian changes to the law and unprecendented law enforcement measures enacted in 2007, including roll back of the Native Title Act, quarantining of welfare benefits and deployment of 600 soldiers from the Australian Defence Forces in remote communites in the Northern Territories. The measures were spurred by claims of rampant sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities which had first appeared on ABC television’s Lateline program in 2006.
During tonight’s interview Chris steps us through his research which shows conclusively that senior ABC producers engaged in distortion of facts, wanton fabrication of evidence, and used testimony of informants who were clearly lying.
Such practices are of course all too common at the ABC, as regular listeners to this show will know. As with the biased reporting and cheap attacks on the character of Schapelle Corby’s family, the one-sided coverage of the Syrian conflict or the suppression of critical evidence concerning the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this shocking story adds weight to the case for radically overhauling or even dismantling the ABC which has flagrantly breached its charter so many times.
In the first hour of today’s show we give you a different perspective on the question of accesibility of assault weapons in the US in the wake of Alex Jones’ highly controversial appearance on CNN with Piers Morgan.
I hope you enjoy the show!
Related Links
- In 2006 the ABC’s Independent Complaints Review Panel (ICRP) received a complaint regarding a number of editions of Lateline
- BAD AUNTY: The truth about the NT intervention and the case for an independent media – Chris Graham At Large
- Mutitjulu women hit back at pedophilia claims
