An ABC radio interview with Zaky Mallah was spiked for editorial reasons and not on the orders of the managing director Mark Scott, the broadcaster has said.
Senior current affairs journalist Peter Lloyd conducted the interview with Mallah on Tuesday for his report on the inquiry ordered by the ABC after the former terror suspect appeared on the Q&A program on Monday.
The interview was to be broadcast nationally on Mark Colvin’s PM radio program but it failed to make the cut.
Guardian Australia and Fairfax media reported on Wednesday that Scott had ordered the interview be prevented from being broadcast. But a spokesman for the ABC said the decision not to run Mallah’s interview “was made at the editorial level through the normal program-making processes within Radio Current Affairs”.
The spokesman said: “The interview did not fit within the editorial standards required of the story, did not add any extra substance to the issues that were being canvassed and was not relevant to the report that was done. For those reasons, a decision was made entirely at the editorial level to leave it out. This matter was not upwardly referred to the managing director.”
Scott tweeted that Guardian Australia’s report was “completely wrong”.
Several well-placed sources told Guardian Australia that the program did not make the decision to spike the interview. The directive came down from the “highest” levels of the ABC through a news manager, they said.
One journalist called the decision “scandalous” but no one would go on the record with their concerns for fear of recriminations.
Editorial decisions are usually made by individual programs, and instructions from above are rare, sources said.
Guardian Australia was told there is widespread concern that the “firewall” between the government which funds the ABC and the independent arm of the ABC News division is breaking down.
Some ABC journalists believe the broadcaster “caved in” too soon in order to comply with the government’s anger.
Former ABC Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes criticised ABC management for its handling of the Q&A affair and for not allowing the program-makers to defend themselves.
Lloyd’s report on PM included audio of Turnbull and Abbott and an interview with media academic Fiona Martin but not with Mallah himself.
The interview was considered newsworthy because Mallah’s appearance on Q&A on Monday night had sparked debate about who should be allowed to appear on the program and had angered the government.
Mallah had said: “The Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join Isil because of ministers like him.”
Q&A’s host, Tony Jones, apologised and ruled the comment “totally out of order”.
Writing for Guardian Australia on Tuesday, Mallah denied he was a threat, and said he was “on good terms” with Australia’s security service, Asio, now.
Less than 12 hours after Q&A had finished the ABC’s head of television Richard Finlayson – who is directly responsible for Q&A – had issued an apology and ordered a review of the program’s procedures.
It later emerged that the communications minister Malcolm Turnbull had complained to Scott and Jones about the show.
The decision to invite Mallah to ask a question was made by the program’s executive producer Peter McEvoy without the knowledge of Scott or Finlayson.
Tony Abbott was furious with the ABC for giving a platform to Mallah, who he described as a “terrorist sympathiser”.
“They’ve given this disgraceful individual a platform and in so doing I believe the national broadcaster has badly let us down,” Abbott said.
“I think many millions of Australians would feel betrayed by our national broadcaster right now. I do think the ABC needs to have a long hard look at itself, and answer a question I’ve posed before: whose side are you on?
“Fair enough, we all believe in free speech, but in the end, you all have to make judgments.”
Mallah, who in 2005 was acquitted of two terrorism offences but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Asio officials, has been a regular guest on other media programs including Ten’s The Project and SBS’s Insight.
He featured heavily in a 2015 Radio National Background Briefing documentary about deradicalisation programs.
On Tuesday evening he appeared again on The Project despite the government’s vocal opposition to him being given a platform. He repeated his warnings against young people going to Syria and Iraq to join the conflict.
“I’ve been on your program before and I’ve made it very clear that anyone who wants to go and travel to Syria or to Iraq to join Isis, don’t go,” Mallah said on The Project. “It’s an organisation that has hijacked Islam. It’s an organisation that has hijacked the jihad. I don’t support Isis and I don’t support anyone leaving Australia and their families to head overseas and join this group.”
To the chagrin of some Muslim activists, who claim he is an unrepresentative and fringe figure, Mallah is often quoted in News Corp and Fairfax Media mastheads, and prolifically posts video blogs on YouTube.
He returned from a visit to Syria in the early days of the country’s civil war, and has emerged as a critic of Islamic State, though he has expressed support for the al-Qaida linked Jabhat al-Nusra militia.
