Download Fragment

Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Page: 3021

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

(Question No. 584)

Senator Abetz asked the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, upon notice, on 8 April 2011:

Given that:

(a) the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has previously advised that it considers that the use of the term 'terrorist' is appropriate in circumstances where someone who engages in a specific form of militant activity which involves 'terrorising' a community (response to question on notice no. 157);

(b) Sderot and surrounding areas of Israel have been subjected to thousands of rockets fired from Gaza, with those firing the rockets deliberately targeting civilians, and doubtless, these communities are terrorised by these attacks;

(c) despite this, the ABC routinely refers to the perpetrators as 'militants', a typical example being the 3 January 2011 report headed 'Palestinians injured in Israeli air raid', which states: 'Israeli warplanes have injured two Palestinians in air raids on the Gaza strip after another spate of rockets fired by Palestinian militants';

(d) the ABC has even substituted the term 'militant' for 'terrorist', the actual term used, when purporting to report the statements of Israeli military spokesmen and sought to justify this on the grounds that its mode of quotation was indirect and not direct:

(1) Can the ABC confirm that describing the Palestinians who fire rockets targeting Israeli civilian communities as 'terrorists' is entirely consistent with its definition of this term.

(2) Can an explanation be provided by the ABC justifying its practice of describing these terrorists as 'militants'.

Senator Conroy: The answer to the honourable senator's question is as follows:

The ABC strives for accuracy and avoids contentious language where necessary and appropriate.

The ABC News Style Guide advises journalists to "rely first on facts and clear descriptions of events, rather than labels that may seem too extreme or too soft, depending on your point of view." Accordingly, the ABC's approach is to ensure that a story is accurate, and language used in it appropriate.

It is entirely appropriate to refer to an individual or group engaged in the activities described in these stories as a militant. The Macquarie Dictionary defines the term as: "combative; aggressive, someone engaged in warfare or strife." It may also be appropriate to refer to persons involved as terrorists, if it can be determined that the militant action was intentionally designed to create terror in the community rather than, say, to strike at a particular military target. Where this occurs, it does not make the original story inaccurate, biased or misleading.