ABC slams ‘despicable’ racist comments targeted at Tony Armstrong
The ABC has been forced to issue a statement defending Tony Armstrong after the presenter was the target of racial abuse on social media.
Barely 24 hours after the national broadcaster released the findings of an independent review looking at the systems and processes in support of staff who have experienced racism, ABC director Justin Stevens issued a new statement on Wednesday in defense of Armstrong.
The Gold Logie nominated presenter, who will wrap up with ABC News Breakfast this Friday, took to social media on Wednesday morning sharing comments on racial abuse aimed at him on social media, which led to a new statement from Stevens.
“I am dismayed that within 24 hours of that important report I’m issuing a statement to publicly call out more racist abuse by members of the public directed at one of the ABC’s highly valued staff members, who also happens to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander,” Stevens said.
“Tony Armstrong is one of the ABC’s best and most talented presenters. This week he has again been targeted on social media and in public comments on news websites in a despicable way.
“The ABC stands by Tony and will not tolerate any racist abuse. The ABC has logged the details of the abusive social media posts and made a complaint regarding the moderation of the comments. A previous incident involving a message sent to Tony was referred to police and resulted in an individual pleading guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.”
Read the full statement here.
The Listen Loudly, Act Strongly review released on Tuesday made 15 recommendations, which ABC managing director David Anderson said it would accept all in principle, including that the ABC board and leadership team read the report in full, it commits to being “proactively anti-racist”, it should improves response to public attacks, improve diverse representation in management and leadership, revise and improve its complaints framework, create culturally safe support systems, and should improve recruitment processes and pathways.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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