ABC denies gagging technology editor over National Broadband Network coverage
The ABC’s outgoing technology editor has claimed he was limited in how he wrote about the NBN during his six year stint with the public broadcaster.
Nick Ross today took aim at his former employer as he announced his departure from the ABC, tweeting: “Mixed emotions here: I’ve left the ABC. Some stuff still falling out but hey, I can potentially write about #NBN again(!)…I also don’t have to let any public lies/criticism about me go unanswered anymore, can be more active on social media…”
An spokeswoman said: “Nick Ross has resigned from the ABC and we are not in a position to make any specific comment about his situation or circumstances other than to wish him well. He was a valued and respected staff member.
“The ABC does not “gag” the coverage of any issues or topics of public importance. As our record makes clear, the ABC covers all issues of public importance thoroughly and independently.
“The only “restrictions” on the issues the ABC covers and the way we cover them are our Editorial Policies, which set standards for things like accuracy, impartiality and fair dealing. All of our journalism is required to adhere to these standards at all times.”
Ross’s coverage of the NBN has at times been controversial with the ABC’s own Media Watch program highlighting in 2013 concerns about a lack of perspective in some of the reporter’s coverage relating to the NBN and whether fibre-to-the-premise was a better approach than fibre-to-the-node.
In the broadcast, Media Watch noted how Bruce Belsham, head of current affairs, had had a “little chat” with Ross importance of providing “a diversity of perspectives and the importance of analysis being underpinned by accurate information”.
Today Ross appeared to take aim at the ABC tweeting: “Also I have no requirement to fend off all your questions about what happened to me over the past three years anymore” and questioning the decision of the ABC to close its technology portal which he had run for the last few years.
Asked about the decision to remove the ABC Technology portal, the ABC spokeswoman said: “The technology page has long been out of use and has now been decommissioned.
“All of the content is still available on the ABC News site. Technology coverage will now be run off the front page, where the big audiences are and where it will be more available to our audience.”
A screenshot of the removed ABC technology portal.
Australia’s technology and telecommunications round has seen a number of experienced reporters depart the space in the last 12 months.
Among the departures are: The Australian’s Stuart Kennedy and Fran Foo, Business Spectator’s Harrison Polites, Fairfax’s Ben Grubb and Rose Powell along with Gizmodo’s Luke Hopewell.
Nic Christensen
It was quite clear the ABC gagged all NBN coverage, it was completely censored from QandA when Turnbull was both Shadow and Government Communications minister whenever he was on, they also only posted around 2 substantial NBN stories in several years, one they delayed till after the election and another one a few months back on RN, in one reply to complaints about their non-existent NBN coverage, they claimed “the debate in technology is over, the Liberals won the election” which was completely and utterly false as there was still near universal support for FTTP over MTM from public polling and almost everybody in the tech/IT sector knew the dud MTM was and the disaster it has now turned into.
NBN is the largest infrastructure project this country has ever seen and the Libs have flushed possibly hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet, both in productivity and in construction, not only that numerous IT and communications companies folded as they had already invested in FTTN which was scrapped, yet, apparently for the mainstream media and the ABC, this is apparently a non issue.
Possibly one of the biggest policy disasters in this countries history only outdone by the Stolen Generation and White Australia, and everyone is too scared to report on it… why?
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I hardly think a former and highly successful EP of ‘Four Corners’ (Bruce Belsham and Nick’s former boss) could be accused of shying away from controversy.
The Tech + Games site on the ABC was a cobbled-together aggregation site, collecting articles found elsewhere on the ABC (something achieved with a simple search). The original content that was on Tech + Games was either verbose, mere fan pieces regurgitating press releases or spoke to such a narrow audience to be almost cult-like.
Some greater editorial rigour across the technology sector is a welcome development. And I’m sure any ABC journalist’s hair would bristle at the suggestion they may be beholden to some implied pro-Coalition/Labor conspiracy.
Don’t get me wrong, the Liberal’s FTTN sucks sideways. But shrouding one’s personal opinions in the ABC’s cloak is not the best way to bring that to light.
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Nick was at the ABC for 3 years, not 6…
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Labor and Libs BOTH should hang their heads in shame, Kiron, but yep, you’ve nailed it mate.
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I agree, Skip. Their online technology coverage needed a shakeup.
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The ABC seems to be a shadow of its former self-image.
I almost risked comparing the ABC to the BBC, but thought better of it …
Meanwhile, in the Melbourne suburb where I live, TTCASS to the home would be a welcome improvement. (TTCASS = two tin cans and some string).
Meanwhile my colleagues in Romania enjoy not just the massively superior bandwidth mediated by fibre to their homes and businesses, they enjoy making fun of the shite connectivity we have in “the world’s most lovable city” (spit).
Must go back and read Nick Ross’ coverage of NBN …
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“liveable” is what I typed before the PC corrected it. But perhaps “loveable” would be even better.
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Agree on those calls about the ABC’s tech coverage. Aunty seemed to jump into this space without knowing what it actually wanted, and as a result we got a mish-mash which was a lot of many things, in varying degrees. Nick Ross clearly knew his stuff but he spent so much time writing these long-form diatribes that were the very definition of tl;dr which might have been a good fit for The Conversation if they were a quarter of the length, but not for the ABC’s site. The ACB needs to learn from this and think clearly about what other sites it wants, and why it wants to spend public money on them – which is definitely NOT just to duplicate what’s already being done by so many commercial sites and bloggers – and clearly define that and use it to choose the right person to run such sites.
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There’s an AMA with Nick on the Reddit front page right now http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/c....._ross_ama/
@David Hague He says he’s been at ABC for 5 years – not 6 or 3 as you pointed out.
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The ABC is another propaganda arm of the LNP.
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So i tuned into the Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’, massive response from Reddit’s Australian audience (plus a bunch of Yanks asking “What’s this NBN thing?” and “Trust those left-wing liberals to screw things up” because they confuse our Libs with their Democrats!).
Sadly Nick Ross’s responses have been pretty poor on fact, on verification, on actually delivering what he promised or at least what he said he set out to achieve with the Reddit session, and many many Reddit users have called him on that.
It comes across as mostly a self-justifying diatribe, the same lines repeated over and over, with a lot of focus (too much, IMHO) on how it all made him ill and stressed and he ended up with a Comcare case and his case worker went and told his bosses what he was saying to her etc, which frankly does nothing to bolster his claims and makes this sound more like a post-facto whinge than an expose on how the ABC ‘gagged’ him (still no proof of any such ‘gag’ BTW).
There’s even the possibility that Ross could find himself lawyering up because in his fury he has included some details which I think would have been considered ‘in confidence’ including management meetings and the terms of his resignation payout (of which he says he was paid “almost a year’s salary” and I expect that would have been on the basis of walking out and shutting up).
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What is the story about Emma and the ABC.
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