Extract from ABC News
"Fundamentally flawed", according to Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson.
Condemning complaints handling at the ABC, she told Sky News: "Its own unit investigates its selves, its other journalists, and other programs".
Also on Sky, her NSW Liberal counterpart Andrew Bragg saw it as: "A bit like Dracula and the blood bank. They basically mark their own homework."
Senator Bragg is very familiar with the ABC complaints process and recently has had two complaints partly upheld for accuracy.
He's been frustrated by ABC coverage of aspects of JobKeeper and other economic policy.
He's also chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, which has now launched its own inquiry into complaints handling by the public broadcasters — though in the case of the ABC, there's no longer any doubt about what the committee chair thinks.
So, what are the facts?
Firstly, no one who takes the time to complain to any organisation likes it when that organisation doesn't agree with them.
It's not unusual for the ABC to have frosty relations with members of political parties in government of all persuasions at territory, state and federal level.
It comes with the job when your job is to hold those in power to account.
There are those ideologically opposed to the very idea of public broadcasting in a congested media market where commercial business models are under pressure, and others who don't see their world view reflected sufficiently on publicly funded ABC platforms and call that bias.
Whatever the motivations of its harshest critics, the ABC has a responsibility to gather and present news and information that is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism.
When it gets it wrong, when it fails to meet its editorial standards, it is expected to correct the record and acknowledge its mistake.
To keep that commitment, the ABC has a complaints system that is "accessible to the public, easy to navigate and responsive to complainants", according to the Australian National Audit Office when it took a close look in 2018.
Here's a link to the public website that explains how a complaint can be lodged.
Here's another public link to the ABC's Complaints Handling Procedures.
This is a link to the Corrections and Clarifications page.
Here's another to Upheld and Resolved complaints, and links to ABC Editorial Policies and the ABC Code of Practice.
Editorial complaints are examined by five members of a complaints-handling unit called Audience and Consumer Affairs.
They don't commission or broadcast any content, they don't sit under any content team or content director, and no one other than the ABC Managing Director has any discretion to intervene in complaint processes.
Their findings are reported to the federal government-appointed ABC Board at every meeting.
The most recent ABC annual report revealed that between them they assessed 7,592 written complaints during the 12-month reporting period.
They provided responses, often very detailed explanations, to 2,206 of those complaints.
Others, less serious, were referred to ABC content teams so they could respond directly.
Over that period, 4.1 per cent of all investigated issues were upheld, another 14 per cent were resolved because content teams took prompt action to remedy the cause of the complaint.
Some complaints are very detailed and run to dozens of pages.
The complaint investigators are required to work quickly.
In the last reporting period, more than 81 per cent of complainants responded to directly by the investigators heard back within 30 days.
Complaints about content represent a fraction of all ABC output, but every one of them is taken seriously.
Where mistakes are made there are written apologies to complainants, on-air and online corrections, revisions to published content with explanatory editors notes, staff are counselled or other disciplinary action taken and further training is provided.
Summaries of upheld and resolved complaints are published, along with a quarterly complaints handling overview, hundreds of Senate Estimates questions are answered, and senior ABC representatives led by Managing Director David Anderson attend hearings.
Then there's the industry regulator – the Australian Media and Communications Authority.
In recent years it's examined dozens of complaints about ABC content.
And what does the regulator say about ABC adherence to editorial standards?
In 2019, in a rare breach on impartiality grounds for an episode of Catalyst, it acknowledged "the ABC's strong record of compliance."
In 2021, the ACMA has not made any breach finding against the ABC.
So, what of international comparisons?
Under the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation system, complaints are handled by content teams, rather than being assessed by a separate complaints unit first.
The CBC has a board-appointed ombudsman who can review them, but their conclusions aren't binding.
The BBC doesn't have an ombudsman and its complaints unit can be overruled by the Director of Editorial Policies and Standards.
At the ABC, Audience and Consumer Affairs findings are binding and can't be overruled by the Editorial Director.
They are essentially the final decision-maker – an ombudsman by any other name – with greater powers than many national and international peers.
In 2009, the ABC Board commissioned and published a review that found the ABC's self-regulatory framework was "fundamentally sound" and, compared to other media organisations in Australia, "well developed and transparent."
Eight years later, the Australian National Audit Office found the "ABC has effective processes and practices in place" for A&CA managed complaints.
That isn't to say it's perfect. Both reviews recommended improvements.
Which is why, in the interests of continuous improvement and accountability, the ABC Board commissioned another independent external review only last month led by former Commonwealth Ombudsman John McMillan and veteran television news executive and former head of SBS News and Current Affairs, Jim Carroll (who has never worked at the ABC).
The terms of reference were published and shortly they will produce a public issues paper and invite submissions.
The ABC complaint-handling system hasn't been rigid over the years; the latest ABC Board initiated review has been embraced.
Senator Andrew Bragg knew all of this as he told Sky News — he had spoken to McMillan and Carroll — but he called a duplicate Senate inquiry anyway.
Such a move, a few months out from an election, is no small thing.
Self-regulation is fundamental to ABC independence.
There are always contentious editorial issues.
Very good journalism is often complained about too.
In an organisation that publishes hundreds of stories and thousands of words every week, mistakes are made.
The investigators in Audience and Consumer Affairs aren't responsible for those errors, their focus is on delivering transparency and accountability unmatched by other Australian media, which is why attacks on the integrity of their work are misguided.
The investigators are experts at what they do, some of them have been handling complaints and holding ABC program teams to account over many years.
Their application and attention to detail hasn't changed even though the political and media climate around them may have.
They have been constant and are absolutely essential to the proper functioning of the public broadcaster.
Craig McMurtrie is the ABC Editorial Director, responsible for the Editorial Policies Division which includes editorial policy advisors, Audience and Consumer Affairs, and classifiers.
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