ABC admits program was unbalanced

THE Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) this week admitted a segment on one of its locally produced children's television shows gave an unbalanced account of the current Middle East crisis.

Following a complaint by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) over the segment on the July 25 edition of children's current affairs program Behind the News, the ABC's audience liaison manager Denise Musto acknowledged the program "failed to meet the requirements of balance and impartiality".

''Regretfully, in its attempt to be simple and concise, thls story did not represent key relevant viewpoints effectively. Some of the descriptions were oversimplistic and inappropriate," she wrote in a letter to ECAJ president Grahame Leonard.

In a July 28 email to the public broadcaster, Leonard accused the program of "poisoning young minds".

While Leonard acknowledged the "tremendous difficulties involved in simplifying political situations for young children': he said the segment contained a number of glaring factual errors about the conflict, including a reference to Hezbollah as a Palestinian refugee organisation.

A number of other complaints from members of the Jewish community, includmg the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, were also sent to the ABC. The story has since been removed from the ABC's website, with the content currently under review. Revised material is to be posted "in due course': Musto said.

Senator Michael Ronaldson, a longstanding campaigner against alleged bias on the ABC and SBS, condemned the program for its "disgraceful and negligent" representation of the Middle East conflict.

While he welcomed the ABC's apology, he called on the broadcaster to "screen a report next week correcting last week's story':