Chris Mitchell claims The Oz is committed to running ‘impartial information’. That wasn’t apparent when Christian Kerr reported on Jake Lynch’s boycott of a visiting Israeli academic<\/i><\/p>\n
Journalist Christian Kerr recently filed a series of critical articles in The Australian about me over my support for an academic boycott of Israel, and then boasted to friends about using the paper to further his own views on the subject.<\/p>\n
Kerr posted on his personal Facebook page that he was “proud of breaking the story” about my refusal to host a visiting academic from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem because, in his opinion, the boycott amounted to “institutionalised racism masquerading as a statement of liberty” and was\u00a0“contemptible”.<\/p>\n
The next day, the Canberra-based correspondent reported that the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS), which I head, “may be breaching the Race Discrimination\u00a0Act”.<\/p>\n
Equating support for the boycott with racism is a contested question at the heart of Kerr\u2019s story. Peter Slezak, of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, described it as a “slur” calculated “to demonise those who speak out publicly in support of Palestinian human rights and international\u00a0law”.<\/p>\n
Professor Wendy Bacon of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism told\u00a0NM:<\/p>\n
“When reporters have a personal stake or interest in a story, they should be very careful to give someone against whom they are making allegations the right to respond. Otherwise you can end up doing hatchet jobs, getting things wrong or creating stories to meet your own\u00a0agenda”.<\/p>\n
I was not quoted in Kerr\u2019s article about the Race Discrimination\u00a0Act.<\/p>\n
In emailed replies to questions from NM, Kerr attributed his Facebook page entry to his excitement at “the feeling of breaking a story that generates an enormous amount of comment and\u00a0interest”.<\/p>\n
The Australian is known for its strong editorial lines, but its mission statement, issued on the publication of its first edition in 1964, promises “impartial information”. A profile of editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell, published last year in The Monthly, said “Mitchell and his staff take this credo seriously. They refer to it often and cite it in their defence when\u00a0criticised”.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview with NM, Mitchell said he was not concerned about Kerr\u2019s own political views tilting his reporting: “Any reporter is influenced by their own personal views \u2026 you try to obtain some sort of internal balance” by using a range of\u00a0sources.<\/p>\n
Asked how this could be reconciled with the Australian\u2019s commitment to impartial news, Mitchell added: “After 40 years as a journalist and 21 years as a national newspaper editor, I wouldn\u2019t get into the idea that any reporter has ever been completely\u00a0unbiased”.<\/p>\n
Peter Fray, former Managing Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, told NM, “journos obviously do have personal views and they should keep them out of news reporting”, although Kerr, he believes, had “every right to get excited\u2026 I am not sure [he] was\u00a0biased”.<\/p>\n
Another of Kerr\u2019s articles quoted Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop, calling on Foreign Minister Bob Carr to “reveal” whether AusAID knew of CPACS\u2019 support for the boycott before granting it $47,000 under the International Seminar Support Scheme in 2010. The ISSS pays conference expenses for delegates from a list of developing countries \u2014 not Israel, which is a high-income country so it is assumed Israelis can pay their own way. As an open, competitive scheme, ministers have no role in determining the outcome of individual\u00a0applications.<\/p>\n
Professor Stuart Rees, Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation, told New Matilda: “Julie Bishop\u2019s comments appear to make no sense. Either she was speaking with her foot in her mouth, or the reporter failed to spell out the nature of the grant [to get the\u00a0quote]”.<\/p>\n
Up to the time of publication, NM was seeking a response from Bishop. Both her office and Christian Kerr declined to specify whether these aspects of the scheme were fully explained before she made her\u00a0comments.<\/p>\n
In a separate development, CPACS\u2019 governing Council this week reaffirmed its commitment to the academic boycott of institutional ties with Israeli universities, and expressed support for the stance Lynch had taken, by 16 votes to one, with two abstentions.<\/p>\n