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Your ABC. Oh yeh?

We regularly hear and read criticism of the ABC and of late the Federal Government "stacking" the Board.

Nevertheless we are still told it's our ABC. Well, kinda of! As Matthew Moore, the SMH's FOI Editor writes today:

"In the the four years to September 15, 2004, the ABC received 1408 complaints about its Middle East coverage. The Federal Court allows you to know that. But the court says you can't know who made the complaints, what they said, and how the ABC responded.

So next time you hear the ABC board, or its new managing director, Mark Scott, prattling on about the need for openness and transparency, or the public's right to know, just remember that's what the ABC believes is good for others, not for itself."

At SBS, Moore writes:

"It's different at SBS. When journalist Antony Loewenstein submitted a freedom of information request to see complaints about its coverage of the Middle East, SBS handed them over. As he wrote in his book, Loewenstein discovered the complaints were overwhelmingly from just one person, Colin Rubenstein of the the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council."

Not surprising about AIJAC. Them aside, read the complete Moore piece here.

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