Radio station 'vilified' Lebanese people
,cecil
Amanda Meade Australian
January 30, 2007
LEADING Sydney broadcaster 2GB was guilty of vilifying Lebanese people
when presenter Brian Wilshire said they were inbred and had very low
IQs, according to an investigation by the media watchdog.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority found yesterday that
a 2005 broadcast on the top talk station was a breach of the
Commercial Radio Code of Practice.
Wilshire made his remarks in a talkback segment late at night just
days after the Cronulla riots.
"My anger is reserved for the politicians and bureaucrats who conspire
to bring in people who are guaranteed to be incompatible and have
demonstrated that in every country into which they have moved,"
Wilshire said. "Many of them have parents who are first cousins whose
parents were first cousins, because of the culture, not a religious
thing."
However, 2GB's prompt apology on the station and on television the
following day, as well as its subsequent retraining of staff, was
noted by ACMA and no further action will be taken. The radio station
is part of advertising millionaire John Singleton's Macquarie Radio
Network.
In a separate ruling, the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program was
found to have breached clause 4.1 of the ABC Code of Practice 2004
when it broadcast inaccurate material about the poverty levels in
Estonia.
The program's failure immediately to clarify the information on the
Foreign Correspondent website exacerbated the complaint.
"(ACMA) is of the view that the ABC breached clause 4.1 of the code in
that it failed to make every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy
of factual content in a segment on Foreign Correspondent broadcast on
July 11 2006, in relation to poverty levels within Estonia, and did
not correct this error in a timely manner," the report found.
The authority has warned both 2GB and the ABC that they will be
monitored closely for any further breaches of the relevant codes