The ZFA believes that the ABC complaints mechanism is currently not fit for purpose. The absence of transparency and independence leads to a lack of accountability within the ABC, which undermines the raison d’être of the complaints mechanism. The ZFA has made four recommendations. These include a call for all complaints and responses should be published, in the name of transparency. The ZFA also calls for an external public media compliance office to be established, which will respond to complaints independently, and will conduct ‘performance audits’ on ABC editorial decision-making. Importantly, when assessing allegations of bias, the public media compliance office would pay attention to how each side of a story is aired, not merely that they are aired.
Read the ZFA submission to ABC complaints review, December 2021.
