Public Broadcaster Probed Over ‘Anti-Israeli’ Story Promoted on TikTok

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation posted a one-minute reel about a movement to boycott Israel products that was later removed and edited.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Managing Director David Anderson speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 14, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has been questioned about its use of TikTok to promote a news story deemed to have anti-Israeli bias.

During a Senate Committee hearing on Feb. 13, Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes asked ABC Managing Director David Anderson about the company’s coverage of the contentious Palestinian-led BDS (boycotts, divestments, and sanctions) movement.

The movement, which calls on companies and individuals to disassociate themselves from Israel via economic sanctions, has been compared to Hitler’s boycott of Jewish businesses.

On Dec. 20, 2023, the ABC posted a one-minute reel about BDS on its TikTok account which showed Palestinian reporter Amal Wehbe wearing a hijab while commentating on the movement.

“Organisers say changing sentiment among customers is powerful,” the reporter said.

The reel also featured a clip of a business owner named Oz saying he had been boycotting products linked to Israel for about two months.

“I worked out I was spending close to 40 to 50 grand a year on Israeli and American products,” he said.

The ABC has over 156,000 followers on its TikTok account.

BDS Story One-Sided: Senator

On Feb. 13, Senator Hughes told the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee that the original BDS story didn’t feature any alternative opinion or critique of the movement.

“We are in the middle of a conflict in the Middle East. Israel was attacked on the 7th of October,” Ms. Hughes said.

“Yet we’ve still got ABC producers, thinking that’s appropriate to fundamentally promote activist and anti-semitic propaganda.”

She asked Mr. Anderson whether the story aimed to legitimise anti-semitism and promote it, particularly to younger audiences—the main user base of the Chinese-owned TikTok app.

The ABC managing director said the media’s position was “not to promote these things” but the spread of the BDS movement was a “legitimate story for the agency to do on any platform.”

He admitted that the original BDS story “wasn’t good enough to begin with” and the broadcaster had pulled it down and posted an updated version in a few hours.

“When that particular story came to our attention, we took a look at it, and we decided that it didn’t meet our standards and then it didn’t have an alternative perspective.”

Ms. Hughes then said that while ABC journalists’s salary is derived from taxpayers, some did not “seem to understand the charter of the ABC or basic journalistic standards.”

She also noted that this was an ongoing issue.

“I did a journalism degree, so I don’t feel I’m unfamiliar with this space. And, you know, the very first thing you’re taught is you ought to report on issues not commentate,” she added.

“We’ve had lots of discussions in the past—too many journalists think they’re commentators or participants now, as opposed to just being a reporter.”

The senator asked whether ABC journalists have degrees or are given training in journalism.

“Because the fact that this was just an ad for BDS, which suggests that they’re either not up to the job, they don’t understand the basics of what a report is there to do, or what the charter of the ABC is,” she noted.

Mr. Anderson replied that, “Everybody gets training.”

“When we’ve gone to publish something, we do correct and clarify put a hand up for that, and then put it out as note on it. So that in time people will go back and have a look and say this was originally published but needed more work and there was one attached to this story.”

The editorial note attached to the TikTok story reads: “This was originally intended as a short profile of one person who has become part of the movement. However, the ABC felt that it did require more context, which has now been included.”

ABC Receives 3,000 Complaints About Israel-Hamas Coverage

The broadcaster has received around 3,000 complaints about its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict since Oct. 7, according to ABC Editorial Director Gavin Fang.

There had been about 1,300 issues raised in those complaints and the majority are about impartiality and bias.

About 58 percent of the complaints have alleged that the ABC has been pro-Israeli or anti-Palestinian, and about 41-42 percent have been “running the other way.”

“It’s a really complex story, a very fast-moving story, so we are always trying to meet our editorial policies and our standards,” Mr. Fang told the Committee.

“We’re always looking to update stories and fix stories where we don’t come up to the mark straightaway.”

The ABC has 13 editorial standards, among which are impartiality, accuracy, and independence.