ABC faces more questions as Emma Alberici's disputed article is restored

A week after it was taken down from ABC Online Emma Alberici’s contentious analysis piece on the government’s proposed tax cuts for business went back up on Thursday. Unusually, the amended article carried a prominent editor’s note at the top, rather than at the end as is common practice. “This analysis has been revised and updated by our chief economics correspondent. Passages that could be interpreted as opinion have been removed. Our editorial processes have also been reviewed. Emma Alberici is the ABC’s chief economics correspondent and is a respected and senior Australian journalist.” The revised piece added comments from the Business Council of Australia and finance minister Mathias Cormann, loud critics of the original.

The editor’s note was the result of fierce negotiation between the ABC’s chief counsel and lawyers retained by the former Lateline presenter herself who fought hard to maintain her reputation against an onslaught of criticism from Malcolm Turnbull and his Coalition ministers, sections of the media and the business lobby. The prime minister used question time to label it “one of the most confused and poorly researched articles I’ve seen on this topic on the ABC’s website”.

Crucially, the editor’s note did not concede there were any factual errors in the analysis piece. Weekly Beast understands the ABC’s editorial policy managers found no significant issues of accuracy but did find issues with tone and opinion. ABC journalists are permitted to analyse but not to give an opinion on an issue they cover. An accompanying news story was quickly amended after two minor accuracy issues were identified – CSR doesn’t have a sugar division and GPT is a property trust so should not have been identified as a company that paid tax. The analysis piece was taken down against Alberici’s wishes.


Source: theguardian