ABC admission reignites decades-old ABC paedophile interview furore

The ABC is facing mounting pressure and scrutiny over an interview with a panel of paedophiles which was broadcast on the radio back in 1975, after an internet activist released the original audio without permission.

The Lateline interview from 1975 has been in and out of the public consciousness over recent decades, with various politicians and activists over the years demanding an apology, accountability and investigations.

The issue has reared its head again in recent weeks, culminating in activist John Adams releasing the original audio on Youtube on Monday. Mumbrella understands this audio has since been pulled from the platform.

ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks has also recently corrected the record on an earlier denial that the ABC had a copy of the offending interview.

The ABC told Mumbrella in a statement the audio should not have been republished by Adams – it was a breach of the conditions under which it was released.

“It was a mistake by the ABC in 1975 to ever conduct this interview. The interview does not meet the ABC’s editorial policies and given the risk of harm to the community it would be inappropriate to republish it,” the spokesperson told Mumbrella.

“The ABC has not authorised the republication or broadcast of the program and given its subject matter we maintain it should not be republished by anyone else. The content was accessed via the ABC’s Community Access program under the agreement that it would be used in a private setting only. We will act to enforce the obligation not to publish this material if our strict terms are not met.”

The ABC’s position is that it would be inappropriate to republish the audio due to the risk of harm to the community.

The refusal to publish the audio — which includes an offensive distinction between “paedophiles” and “pederasts”, implying the latter are less harmful —  may feed into perceptions and conspiracy theories that the country’s elite are corrupt and involved in covering up such issues over many decades.

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At the time of the original broadcast in 1975, the ABC and the program’s host Richard Neville made a distinction between paedophiles and the men on the program. The men on the program were framed as “pederasts”, which it said referred to the consenting “homosexual relationship of a man with a boy”.

Reverend Fred Nile – who would later become a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council – lodged a complaint with the Vice Squad at the time, and various politicians over the years have agitated for more to be done.

The ABC’s then-chairman, Richard Downing, said it was the broadcaster’s role “to try to inform society about what is happening in order that society may be forewarned and forearmed”. He also said “In general, men will sleep with young boys and that’s the sort of thing the community ought to know about”.

In 2016, the ABC was under pressure from Senator Eric Abetz about the matter once more, who noted various institutions had been apologising in recent years “for their inaction and views expressed by predecessors in relation to child abuse”.

An official record of the ABC refusing to apologise in 2016. (Source: Australian Parliament House)

At the time, the ABC submitted a response to the Senate Estimates noting it would not apologise for the program.

“The ABC considers child abuse is a legitimate news and current affairs subject and it will continue to cover it where relevant in accordance with its Editorial and Charter responsibilities,” it said.

In 2018, Senator Abetz brought up the issue again in Senate Estimates, asking then MD David Anderson whether the interviews took place in ABC studios, and if the broadcaster ever reported it to police.

Anderson said he was not aware of the issue and would take it on notice.

In a written response later in 2018, the broadcaster said: “The ABC has no records of the interview, but according to contemporary reports the then-ABC radio program Lateline interviewed three ‘self-confessed pederasts’ in 1975. The ABC has no record of whether it reported these men to the police, however contemporary newspaper reports state that the then-director of the Festival of Light, the Reverend Fred Nile, provided a copy of the recording to New South Wales police. At the time it was reported that a spokesman for the NSW Minister for Police stated that the NSW Police Commissioner, Mr Hanson, would ‘study the situation, to see if the Vice Squad should be involved’.”

In recent weeks, however, current managing director of the ABC, Hugh Marks, has written to Senator Varun Ghosh, chair of the Senate Environment and Communications Committee, and requested to correct the record. In the letter dated 30 September, Marks said Anderson’s 2018 response was “incorrect”.

Hugh Marks has recently written to Senate Estimates to admit the ABC does indeed have a record of the interview

“While Senator Abetz did not specifically request a tape or record of the Lateline program, the answer the ABC gave, that it has no records of the interview was inaccurate,” Marks said in the letter.

“The ABC Archives does possess a digital copy of the episode. With the passage of time and with a number of key people no longer employed at the ABC, it is not clear how the error occurred.

“The ABC would like to apologise to the Committee for this error and request that the record be corrected.”

This, combined with Communications Minister Anika Wells’ alleged refusal to force the ABC to release the audio and punish those responsible, prompted Adams to publish the audio he had acquired without permission.

He continues to discuss the issue at length on Youtube with his In The Interests Of The People co-host Martin North.

It is not yet clear if the ABC will take further action.