ABC Australia blasts government complaint of anti-war bias

[Newsjock]

ABC's weekly "Media Watch" program closed out its 2003 season with a lengthy 11-minute report on government allegations that the network was biased against the war.

You can read the full transcript here, or see the highly entertaining broadband video here.

Excerpt:

... So where were the battalions complaining to the Minister for Communications, Senator Alston? Media Watch made formal requests under the Freedom of Information Act to both the Minister's office and his department asking for

...all such complaints and all logs and records of such complaints...
- Media Watch letters to Senator Alston

We expected a mountain of paper. But all the Minister's office and his department could rake up between them were nine complaints.

... The panel made 15 new findings against journalists who had no right of reply to complaints they were never allowed to see.
The panel was supposed to give reasons for every finding. It didn't.
It was supposed to make findings only about serious bias. It didn't.
Independent isn't enough: the panel has also got to be transparent and fair.