Triple J has defended its reporting of a poll on the death penalty for Australians overseas after it was accused of damaging the campaign to save Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from execution in Indonesia.
The poll, conducted by Roy Morgan Research upon the suggestion of Triple J, found 52% of respondents thought Australians convicted of drug trafficking in another country and sentenced to death should be executed.
“As two Australian men sit on death row in Indonesia a poll done for Hack found most people think the firing squad should pull the trigger,” the ABC youth station’s current affairs program Hack said on 27 January
Campaigners against the execution of the Bali Nine pair criticised Triple J over its broadcast, which came before the final legal avenue for the two men had been closed.
Indonesian officials seized upon the results of the poll. The Jakarta Post quoted Indonesia’s ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Rifat Kesuma, who said:
“We can say that 52% of Australians support Indonesia’s position,” said Nadjib.
A high-profile supporter of the Mercy Campaign, the vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University Greg Craven, said Triple J would be partly responsible should the Bali Nine pair be executed.
“If these two men really are executed then the radio station that commissioned the poll, the people who delivered that poll, and the people who answered that poll in the affirmative will know that they have had a part, no matter how small, in the death of two other people,” he said on the ABC on Thursday.
Triple J acknowledged it had suggested the subject for the poll but said it had not paid for it to be conducted.
“We did not commission the poll; there was no payment for the poll,” Hack host Tom Tilley said.
“What we did do ... is suggest they conduct a poll on this subject at that particular time ... something they’ve done several times already in the past.”
Roy Morgan took up the Triple J suggestion and also agreed to give Hack the results exclusively before distributing them to the rest of the media. Guardian Australia also reported the poll’s findings.
The media release was headlined: “Australians think Andrew Chan & Myuran Sukumaran should be executed.”
Tilley broadcast a statement on Thursday saying the team sympathised with the families of the two men who were facing this “horrifying situation” but journalists should not shy away from reporting the news.
Tilley defended Hack’s role, saying “media outlets legitimately use polling in stories pretty much every day of the week”.
“Obviously this particular issue is hugely sensitive ... but it would be a dangerous precedent for journalists not to report information because they were fearful of how politicians might react.”
He also expressed sympathy for the men on death row and said the program had an excellent track record of reporting fairly on the plight of the Bali Nine.
“I want to say that myself and the Hack team... have the deepest, most sincere sympathy for these two men, their families, their friends and their supporters.
“This is a horrifying situation ... and if you listened to our program last week … you would know that we’ve been committed to providing in-depth, balanced and respectful coverage of the story.”
More than 150,000 people have signed the Mercy Campaign petition for clemency for Sukumaran and Chan. The petition was started in 2011 and in the last few weeks support for the men has snowballed. More than 130,000 of the signatures are from Australians.
In their media release the pollsters said: “A special snap SMS Morgan poll today shows a small majority of Australians (52%, down 1% since August 2009) say that Australians convicted of drug trafficking in another country and sentenced to death should be executed while 48% (up 1%) don’t.
“Of Australians, a larger majority (62%) said the Australian government should not do more to stop the execution of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan while 38% say the Australian government should do more to stop the execution. Today’s special SMS Morgan Poll was conducted with a cross-section of 2,123 Australians over the last few days, January 23-27, 2015.”
