Is ABC management complicit in letting senior on-air talent promote the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and its sponsors, without declaring conflicts of interest?

Two senior correspondents at Australias national broadcaster have links to defence industries and the defence establishment which have possibly compromised their impartiality.

The non-disclosure of outside associations between ABC presenters and people they interview is a breach of the ABC Charter and its Editorial Policies.

International Affairs Analyst, Stan Grant has conducted interviews with researchers from ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute) without disclosing on-air his position as a Senior Fellow with ASPI.

Following enquiries to the ABC by APAC News, ASPI has scrubbed references to Grant as aSenior Fellowfrom its website. Though a number of videos of Grants ASPI work remain on the ASPIYouTubechannel, the most recent videos were uploaded in the past 24 hours.

For ABC News he has interviewed seven analysts from ASPI on numerous occasions. In his role with ASPI he has interviewed former prime minister John Howard, former opposition leader Kim Beazley and former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt.

Defence reporterAndrew Greenehas also relied heavily on ASPI for comment; in addition he has spoken at events and appeared in a corporate video for ASPI sponsor BAE Systems.

Does the ABC Charter apply?

The ABC has aCharterandeditorial guidelines that specifically deal with issues such as bias and conflicts of interest. However, when it comes to ASPI, and reporting on defence industries, the application of these standards is unclear.

News director Gavin Morris referred questions to an ABC spokesperson, who said the ABC does not comment on editorial matters and had no comment on specific issues raised in this story.

Speaking off the record, one ABC News journalist says there is no editorial pressure to seek comment from ASPI or to produce stories that fit ASPIs narrative. However, ABC24 and the Canberra bureau regularly seek expert ‘independent’ commentary from ASPI on defence and security matters.

China is overwhelmingly the topic of discussion for ASPI analysts appearing on the ABC and they consistently paint China as a major security threat and promote the position that Australias biggest economic partner should be treated as an adversary. This position has long been rejected by former prime ministers, foreign ministers and diplomats, and it is also wearing thin with the defence establishment.

At a major forum held at theLowy Institute earlier this month, former chief of Australias Defence Forces, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (Retd),declared, China is our partner, China is not our enemy, lets get that very straight. His comments were carried across all the major media the ABC did not produce a report.

ASPI is a Commonwealth company, which is accountable to parliament and relies on the Defence Department for the bulk of its funding. Is the ABC obliged to disclose this fact?

Behind the wall

In September the ABC launched a new weekly program calledBehind the Wall. Hosted by Stan Grant it informs viewers about China and its complex relationships with Australia and the rest of the world.

The debut guest wasNathan Ruser, a 22-year-old China expert who doesnt speak Chinese, has never been to China and there is no evidence he graduated from ANU where he was undertaking a course Middle-Eastern studies.

Ruser is, however, a researcher at ASPI. At the time of that interview Grant was listed on the ASPI website as a Senior Fellow. ABCsconflict of interestpolicy suggests he should have disclosed he was interviewing someone from an organisation to which he is associated.

An Australian researcher who has seen theinterviewsays Ruser relied on a considerable number of unverifiable facts. Adding, It seems odd a twenty-something analyst with no background in strategic studies would front a major research project for a leading think-tank. That is the question I would be asking.

This researcher did not want to be identified because Ruser is very aggressive on social media. HisTwitterhandle reads: Picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

Grants victimization in China?

In February 2020, Grant appeared as a guest on ABCsQ&A program, recounting his ill treatment asCNNs China journalistin the early 2000s. He said, We were often physically assaulted while trying to get to speak to people in many parts of China.

Last month atABC online, he wrote, My family was under constant surveillance, if we had a meal outside our home with friends, police would take photographs. My phone was tapped and our house was bugged. When I was away on assignment the police would come to my home, question and intimidate my children.

However, for the greater part of his time in Beijing his Australian-born wife Tracey Holmes worked for the Chinese governmentwhich he asserts subjected him to constant harassment.

Holmes was a presenter with state-owned television network CCTV and both she and Grant appeared in adocumentaryproduced by a state-aligned media company. Much of it was filmed in their home and the interviews they gave did not suggest the couple lived in fear of intimidation.

ABC and ASPIs united front

Earlier this month Chinese state-owned media outlet China Daily released amini documentaryhighly critical of ASPI and its funding sourcesincluding the US Government, which provided $1.37 million last year.

Former Australian Ambassador to China, Geoff Raby and Labor-aligned YouTube blogger Jordan Shanks were interviewed. Shanks accused the ABC of actively promoting ASPIs narrative. The ABC shot back with a news reportdismissing China Dailys allegations.

The storys author, defence correspondent Andrew Greene included six paragraphs of rebuttal quotes from ASPI chief Peter Jennings. No space for comment was provided to Raby or Shanks.

Khaki Greene

In December last year, GreeneaddressedThe Royal United Service Institute for Defence and Security Studies. Hisspeechwas very supportive of Australias security and intelligence agencies, specifically citing the work of ASPI to support his thesis, saying:

A person who has emerged in recent years with great insights is a young gentleman by the name of Alex Joske at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

ANDREW GREENE, ABC DEFENCE REPORTER

Joske has been interviewed numerous times on ABC.

The ABC reporter spoke positively about a raft of national security policies which restrict individual freedoms in Australia, saying, Weve got preventative detention, travel bans, metadata, secrecy over court cases and all of these have slid seamlessly off the legislative assembly line.

He added, Canberras national security community is hankering for scalps to be delivered.

Greene also made disparaging comments about former Prime Minister Paul Keating, in relation to a 2019 remark when Keating suggested Australias spy agencies were being run by nutters.

At that time, Greene filed areporton Keating, he sought just one expert viewthat of ASPI Executive Director Peter Jennings.

Best of British

In 2017, Greene took part in a conference for British arms manufacturer BAE Systems and hisbiographyremains on the companys website. He also spoke in avideo presentationin which he appeared in front of a BAE Systems logo backdrop.

In February Greene filed atelevision news storyon the progress of Australias new $35 billion naval frigates being built by BAE Systems. Of the first 26 images in that news report, 24 came straight out of a BAE Systems corporate video.

The BAE Systems logo appeared on screen 12 times throughout Greenes two-minute report, it also includes a positive sound bite from the chief of BAE Systems in Australia Gabby Costigan, where she is not identified to ABC viewers.

The ABC Charter provides stricteditorial guidelineson the identification of commercial organisations and products, which prohibit the naming of brands across its broadcasting.

ABC presenters are not permitted to name brands such as Coca-Cola on air, which raises the question why is an ABC defence correspondent allowed to identify the brand of a weapons maker no fewer than 12 times in one story?

Republished with permission from APAC.News