The war on the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to rage in Australian newsrooms and fissures are beginning to arise. In this week’s Media Briefs, ABC journalists have spoken out on the national broadcaster’s treatment of the conflict, and your correspondent tried (and failed) to get a briefing from the Israeli Embassy, ending up stuck where no one wants to be. Elsewhere, an era of cricketing highlights comes to an end off the back of some vexatious copyright claims.
ABC fractures over Gaza
Nine newspapers reported overnight that ABC staff have spoken out against the coverage of the national broadcaster’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict in a mass meeting of over 200 reporters this week.
There were a number of issues raised in the meeting, including the ABC’s reliance on Israel Defence Force (IDF) spokespeople and reticence to use stronger language when describing Israeli policy. Sarah Ferguson’s reports on 7.30 were raised in particular.
The Nine story noted that the ABC had removed a specialist verification team, in favour of relying on advice from former foreign correspondents, after flagging the impact that the process had on junior staff.
A spokesperson for the ABC said in a statement that “editorial guidance meetings are held regularly on a range of issues, particularly for major news coverage and events. Our journalism is never influenced by external pressure and is fiercely independent.”
It comes as high-profile ABC personalities have come under fire for their social media movements. Radio National Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas was criticised on social media for retweeting former Victorian Labor MLC Philip Dalidakis, who was accusing federal Greens leader Adam Bandt of inciting hatred with an “extremely serious escalation in hate speech”. Bandt had posted a promotion for a November 5 rally for Palestine that featured a red map of the area taking in both Israel and the Palestinian territories without demarcating between the two. Karvelas then undid her retweet. Elsewhere at Aunty, News Breakfast sports presenter Tony Armstrong removed pro-Palestine Instagram stories, clarifying later on Instagram that the removal was due to editorial policies.
An IDF non-briefing
Your Media Briefs correspondent was set to join a small number of other journalists at a secretive briefing held by the Israeli Embassy at the Jewish War Memorial in Sydney’s inner east this week. The movie we were set to watch? A “closed compilation of raw footage gathered by the IDF after Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7th”, according to the Embassy. No phones or smart devices were permitted, and we were only allowed a pen and notepad.
Only a handful of journalists were set to attend, including the ABC’s Sarah Ferguson. However, with the Optus outage bringing offices around the country to a standstill that morning, this correspondent’s security clearance was stuck in apparent limbo alongside that of the Daily Telegraph’s James O’Doherty. The pair of us were subsequently stuck in a holding room for around an hour as our security permissions were processed — make of that what you will. With no solution in sight, we were politely sent on our way with apologies.
Old Gold! The end of an era
It’s the end of an era for a generation of cricket fans this week, with legendary YouTube channel Robelinda2 taken down after what appears to be vexatious copyright claims from a dodgy Bangladeshi cricket channel.
Robelinda2, run by hobby archivist and full-time musician Rob Moody, had over 2700 clips of historical cricket footage dating back 40 years, all available without monetisation on YouTube for fans and students of the game alike. Whether it be the best of Ricky Ponting’s diving runouts or a compilation of Inzamam-ul-Haq getting confused at the crease, Robelinda2 was a treasured place for an entire generation who grew up with cricket and the internet age.
Earlier this week, a number of vexatious complaints from a Bangladeshi cricket channel with a grand total of six followers on Twitter, threatened the demise of his channel if he didn’t hand over highlights from a 2006 series between Bangladesh and Australia, claiming they now owned the rights.
With the channel nuked from the internet, a tired Moody told Media Briefs that the existence of Robelinda2 did not in fact, imply the existence of a new, better, Robelinda3.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna do that — I can’t be bothered. There’s 2,700 videos on there, it would be insane.”
The loss of the channel comes as Cricket Australia started Cricket Gold, their own licensed, free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel on Samsung TV Plus, the Korean manufacturer’s platform for FAST channels.
Google Australia was contacted for comment.
Moves
- The Nine papers have welcomed the return of former state politics reporter Sumeyya Ilanbey, now working as a business journalist. Former Age business reporter Emma Koehn has moved on to the education round.
- Bridget Brennan joins the desk at ABC News Breakfast, co-hosting at least once a week with Michael Rowland as Lisa Millar expands her scope.
- Presenter of Guardian Australia‘s Full Story podcast Laura Murphy-Oates is leaving the outlet for “a new adventure outside of the newsroom”, she posted on social media.
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