Australia’s bigoted media: much reporting breaches racism codes
17 December 2017
CHRISTINA HO | The Conversation | Pacific Media Watch
Read the complete article here
SYDNEY- Half of all race-related opinion pieces in the Australian mainstream media are likely to contravene industry codes of conduct on racism.
In research released this week, the Who Watches the Media report found that of 124 race-related opinion pieces published between January and July this year, 62 were potentially in breach of one or more industry codes of conduct, because of racist content.
Despite multiple industry codes of conduct stipulating fair race-related reporting, racist reporting is a weekly phenomenon in Australia’s mainstream media.
We define racism as unjust covert or overt behaviour towards a person or a group on the basis of their racial background. This might be perpetrated by a person, a group, an organisation, or a system.
The research, conducted by not-for-profit group All Together Now and the University of Technology Sydney, focused on opinion-based pieces in the eight Australian newspapers and current affairs programmes with the largest audiences, as determined by ratings agencies.
We found that negative race-related reports were most commonly published in News Corp publications. The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Herald Sun were responsible for the most negative pieces in the press. A Current Affair was the most negative among the broadcast media.
Muslims were mentioned in more than half of the opinion pieces, and more than twice as many times as any other single group mentioned.
Muslims were portrayed more negatively than the other minority groups, with 63% of reports about Muslims framed negatively.
These pieces often conflated Muslims with terrorism. For example, reports used terrorist attacks in the UK to question accepting Muslim refugees and immigrants to Australia.
How to shut down debate, create a definition so broad that any comment can be assigned to it. Use said definition to beat any body that might dare raise a point of view into submission by labeling them racist.
Democracy is based on free speech and a robust debate of competing views and ideas.
_________
Indeed it is, but the notion of freedom becomes precarious when what one person argues a 'right' to express racist views. In Australia, hate speech laws have been framed to prevent victimisation on account of race - KJ
Posted by: Craige Brown | 18 December 2017 at 09:59 PM
I think a lot of the "problems" or "issues" highlighted by such reports as this come down to a basic lack of understanding of the English language as well as limited lexigraphical and research skills eg the term Muslim is not a connotation of race as is invariably implied by most MSM. This makes it difficult for children who are hampered in their learning by the left wing bias in most teaching institutions in most Western countries now.
Posted by: Peter Sandery | 18 December 2017 at 08:09 AM
It's not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and myths that surround it - John Pilger:
In an era of universal deceit and scepticism, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act
The further society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it - George Orwell
Posted by: Bernard Corden | 17 December 2017 at 10:17 PM
It's not surprising that Murdoch's publications are the leading offenders. His racist agenda has been clear for years. And as for ACA, remember the Wawa affair?
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1743768.htm
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 17 December 2017 at 04:41 AM