News

ABC’s Stephen McDonell criticised over Walkley nominated piece

McDonellTwo journalism academics from RMIT University’s journalism school have issued an open letter calling on the the Walkley Foundation not to award ABC China correspondent Stephen McDonell a Walkley for his piece “Covert Chinese media”.

The radio piece revealed how the Chinese government had established an Australian front company, CAMG Media International, and employed Australian Andrea Yu to be a “reporter”, asking pre-vetted questions which appeared to be coming from foreign media at highly staged government press conferences.

In their open letter journalism academics Jill Singer and Alex Wake defend Yu, who is now a journalism student at RMIT: “It will be a sad day for journalism if Stephen McDonnell’s shortlisted piece… wins a Walkley Award.

“At the heart of his story is a young Australian woman, Andrea Yu, who had just arrived in China after securing her first paid employment after her Arts degree. She hadn’t even been paid before McDonnell’s piece went to air, claiming that she was somehow a patsy for the Chinese government.”

Speaking from Beijing last night McDonell said he felt sympathy for the young woman but was clear that his story was not about her.

“It’s not a story about Andrea Yu,” McDonell told Mumbrella. “It is a story about a Chinese front company laundering Chinese government propaganda through Australia and on-selling it to other countries and pretending it is Australian journalism.”

“I don’t wish any malice towards Andrea Yu. It wasn’t mean to her or rude to her and when I interviewed her I gave her every chance to respond.”

The academics argue that Yu made a simple mistake of not doing her due diligence and is being unfairly victimised. Since returning to Australia Yu has struggled to find work in Australian journalism.

“Considering there are judges, politicians and even journalists who regularly make the same mistake, it seems unfair that Yu copped such a shellacking. In terms of degrees of difficulty, McDonnell’s job on Yu was akin to shooting goldfish in a barrel,” the academics wrote.

McDonell rejected this criticism arguing that the questions were legitimate of anyone acting directly or indirectly on behalf of the Chinese government.

“If Andrea Yu was a 40-year-old man doing that, and I’d asked those same questions, would anyone think there was anything untoward about the story?”, he told Mumbrella.

“You can’t just say ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ if you’re going to stand up on the world stage as a journalist. The press conferences are already rigged. It is really hard to ask a question anyway and most of the questions are pre-vetted.”

Wake said the issue was now around whether McDonell should be recognise by the Walkley Foundation for his piece.

“This was an attack on a young person not the broader issue and surely journalism is better than that,”  Wake told Mumbrella.

“For the ABC with the hundreds and hundreds of hours of fantastic journalism they put out, to put forward this story as an example of excellence in current affairs broadcasting is really quite embarrassing.”

“This is akin to having a go at a bank teller for not passing on interest rates.”

However, McDonell maintains the piece was focused on the broader issue and that it showed how Australian journalism was being used to pass on Chinese government propaganda.

“There are only a certain number of questions that they would let foreigners ask. On multiple occasions there was a question from ‘a foreign CAMG journalist’ which is not actually a question from a foreign journalist but is rather a question from themselves because Andrea was representing a Chinese government entity and she knew she was,” said McDonell.

“She knew what she was because she knew what questions she was being told to ask,” he said.

At the time of posting the Walkley Foundation had not responded to requests for comment.

Nic Christensen  

Update: Host of the ABC’s PM program Mark Colvin has also given Mumbrella a comment on Stephen McDonell’s piece.

It can be read below:

Stephen McDonell’s story was about an important subject and it dealt with it seriously and fairly.

The subject is what’s come to be known as “astroturfing”, which is becoming a blight on journalism – and indeed on democracy.

Astroturfing is the practice of using real or pseudonymous figures to push a cause without declaring their interest.

It’s becoming perniciously widespread in the corporate world, and regrettably also among governments.

That was the case in this story, where a young Australian had allowed herself to become a pawn of a repressive government which doesn’t like its policies questioned.

She appears to have been allowed to ask questions on different occasions precisely so that the Chinese Government could pretend that it did not exclude foreigners from doing so.

That’s a stark contrast to her tutors’ claim, that “The fact that she was allowed to ask a question did no one any harm, she certainly didn’t deny anyone else a speaking position”.

Andrea Yu’s tutors also claim that she “made a simple mistake of not doing her due diligence” on CAMG.

In the actual interview, however, she made it clear that she had established that:
a) she chose to be employed by them;
b) when she asked questions in press conferences she was  representing the company;
c) she knew the company was majority owned from Beijing;
d) that she suspected, at the very least, that it was controlled by the Government.

So I’m afraid the “no due diligence” defence just doesn’t fly.

Andrea Yu’s interview was not cut to make a point or quoted out of context: indeed she was quoted at length precisely because it made it clear she had been given a fair chance to put her own case.

Ms Yu’s tutors say her “only crime was failing to understand the distinction between journalism and PR.”

Let’s be very clear: in journalism, that’s not a small crime.

It’s right up there with plagiarism and fabrication.

If you’re doing PR, especially for a regime that locks up journalists, artists and writers, up to and including a Nobel Prize winner, as political prisoners, you have to say so up front.

Youth, inexperience and naivety are not a good enough excuse.

Jill Singer and Alex Wake ‘s open letter can also be viewed below:

It will be a sad day for journalism if Stephen McDonnell’s shortlisted piece  “China uses mysterious Australian to rig Congress Coverage” wins a Walkley Award.

At the heart of his story is a young Australian woman, Andrea Yu, who had just arrived in China after securing her first paid employment after her Arts degree. She hadn’t even been paid before McDonnell’s piece went to air, claiming that she was somehow a patsy for the Chinese government.

Yu made a simple mistake. In the joy of getting a job (using her hard-earned language skills) with a Melbourne-based firm, she hadn’t researched her employers all that thoroughly.

She didn’t have any journalism training and hadn’t looked up the Australian Securities and Investment Commission to find out who ultimately would be paying her wages.

The fact that she was allowed to ask a question did no one any harm, she certainly didn’t deny anyone else a speaking position.

While there may well be a Walkley Award winning story in the ownership of the firm Yu worked for (CAMG and Australian Chinese businessman Tommy Jiang) or even in the theatre of the Chinese propaganda machine – McDonnell’s piece is instead a story of an experienced journalist (himself) grilling an inexperienced, obliging and naïve young woman whose only crime was failing to understand the distinction between journalism and PR.

Considering there are judges, politicians and even journalists who regularly make the same mistake, it seems unfair that Yu copped such a shellacking.   In terms of degrees of difficulty, McDonnell’s job on Yu was akin to shooting goldfish in a barrel.

For the record, Yu immediately returned to Australia, enrolled in a graduate diploma of journalism at RMIT University and will graduate with distinction at the end of this year. She is a young person of great integrity, who has impressed her lecturers with her dedication to learn about the theory and practice of journalism.

Jill Singer & Alex Wake
RMIT University
ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.