Q&A: ABC's Managing Director Reprimands Tony Abbott's Criticism Of The Company

On Thursday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott criticised the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) over the issue of featuring a terror suspect Zaky Mallah in an episode of Q&A program. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the issue and asked the ABC on whose side they were.

Mr. Abbott was moved with the repeated broadcasting of the episode and said that it was nothing less than a “lefty lynch mob.” He insisted all the members of the Parliament to boycott the program because he believes that it gave considerable space to the terror suspect to voice his opinion.

ABC managing director Mark Scott immediately fired back at Mr. Abbott reminding him that ABC is a public broadcaster and not a state broadcaster. He further rebuked Mr. Abbott’s comments and issued a public statement saying the ABC is "clearly on the side of Australia.”

Mr. Scott said ABC is unlike the broadcasting companies present in Russia, North Korea, Vietnam and China and expressed his disappointment towards all the irrational responses those were generated by the Q&A episode last week. However, Mr. Abbott has made announcements on carrying out an inquiry into the program. In response to Mr. Abbott’s action, he said that the government needs to understand the importance of free speech in a democratic country like Australia which otherwise would lead to the espousal of obscurantist practices.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, although Mr. Scott acknowledged that it was a mistake to have allowed former terror suspect Zaky Mallah to appear live on air, yet he passionately defended the program saying that it deserves to continue for another 20years. The Guardian reported that the communication minister Malcom Turnball has asserted his faith in ABC’s role. He further argued that ABC is mainly accountable to the board and management because neither does he nor does Mr. Abbott run the Company.

However, he repeatedly criticised the last week’s episode of Q&A program and assured that his department would investigate “the context in which Mallah appeared on Q&A” which would include reviewing of broadcasting codes, presence of any physical security protocols and the rebroadcast of the episode.

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