ABC admits mistake and issues on-air correction over Gina Rinehart claim

The ABC’s top leadership has been confronted in Senate estimates over the “disgusting” Gina Rinehart segment which led to the national broadcaster issuing a public apology.

In August, ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks admitted the controversial segment depicting a fictional violent attack on Ms Rinehart “doesn’t meet the pub test”.

The broadcaster apologised and changed its editorial guidance after the ABC previously defended the segment as “editorially justifiable”, refusing at first to remove it from ABC iView.

The ABC Ombudsman found the controversial film did not breach editorial policies, but had fallen short of community expectations.

On Tuesday, Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson grilled Mr Marks and the ABC’s editorial director Gavin Fang on how the Race Around the World programme was satire.

“Well, that was certainly the intent, wasn’t it, for it to be satire from the young journalist who created the film,” Mr Marks said.

“Whether satire lands or not – often it doesn’t, sometimes it does. Again, we went through an editorial review process, a complaints process.

“That complaints process came to an outcome and we made decisions that I felt were important to set as the standard for ABC work going forward.

“We acknowledge the error, we apologise for the offence, and we’ve taken the appropriate steps.”

Ms Henderson pressed Mr Marks on the fact it took the ABC “quite a few weeks” to apologise after defending the segment as satire.

“Senator, every person in Australia is entitled to go through the same complaints process in relation to content that the ABC broadcasts,” Mr Marks said.

“There will on occasion be things that I might look at, mainly news content for accuracy or impartiality reasons that I might say, ‘well, that doesn’t meet standards’ and act faster. But generally, if the validity of our complaints process, it’s important that I let it run its course so that we actually know what basis on which we’re making decisions.

“So in that case, we had to let it run its course and I acted straight away on the release of that decision by the ombudsman, so I don’t think there was a delay.”

Mr Marks said the film in question had not been referred to him or the ABC’s head of screen Jennifer Collins, but future matters would require senior clarification.

Liberal Senator Dean Smith took up a fierce line of questioning on the “gross” depiction concerning Ms Rinehart, calling on the ABC officials to outline what upgrades had been made to its editorial guidelines.

Mr Fang said the ABC’s harm and offence guidance was being expanded to include non-news content.

“Trying to make that guidance even clearer so that where these questions are, which are matters of judgement often, where these matters of judgement come up that we are crystal clear about the expectations around our editorial guidance when it comes to harm and offence, particularly around non-news material,” Mr Fang said.

Senator Smith said Mr Fang’s response “might be an explanation, but I find it completely unsatisfactory”.

“The ABC operates in a very dynamic context, the living world,” Senator Smith said.

“And to think that its responsiveness is restricted to a complaints mechanism, to public outcry, disappointment, outrage, that’s just not good enough.”