‘Senators will be demanding answers’: ABC’s David Anderson to cop grilling over doctored footage
The ABC’s managing director David Anderson will face a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday, but the rising cost of operations at the national broadcaster is likely to be the least of his concerns.
The Australian reports that Anderson will be grilled over the insertion of fake gunshot audio into a 2022 report, and a review into the matter, which the MD says would be finished by October, but is yet to surface.
The independent review addresses a “series of allegations and concerns” which was captured during operations by the 2nd Commando Regiment during a 2012 deployment in Afghanistan.
David Anderson
Audio of five extra gunshots was added over footage, which Anderson addressed after a Spotlight report exposed the fakery.
“An issue with the audio on a video accompanying the online story was first brought to the attention of ABC News last week and it immediately looked into the claims,” Anderson wrote in a statement posted to the ABC website in late September.
“Based on preliminary inspection, an editing error in the audio was identified and we have removed the video. This error should not have occurred.
Anderson said he is “now commissioning an independent review of the issues that have been raised with the online and broadcast story to fully understand what has occurred and make any necessary recommendations”, with those findings to be made available in October.
That deadline has now passed, meaning the report cannot be parsed during the Senate estimates.
David Coleman
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman told The Australian that “Coalition senators will be demanding answers” about the Heston Russell case.
“There are serious concerns here which go to the very core of the credibility of ABC reporting. How could this have happened? And why is it taking so long to deliver answers on this?”
Coleman said it’s “completely implausible that the ABC doesn’t know what happened”.
“It needs to spell out what occurred, in black and white, to senators.
“If the ABC says it still doesn’t know what has happened, this will reflect very poorly on the credibility of its leadership team.”
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Another of the Opposition demands on things that they defended in their decade in charge.