ABC grilled
ABC Jerusalem news producer Fouad Abu Gosh committed an "absolute breach" of the ABC's social media policy.
ABC Jerusalem news producer Fouad Abu Gosh committed an “absolute breach” of the ABC’s social media policy with anti-Israel tweets, which “undermines his ability to impartially report from that region for the future”, ABC managing director David Anderson admitted during a Senate Estimates hearing on November 8.
In September, The AJN reported that the ABC was reviewing Abu Gosh’s social media activity after he had tweeted, “This is how the Nazis treated the Jews, maybe it’s time for….!!!!”, as well as, “There is a great Zionist project to dominate and control all Arabs in the region!!”
During Senate Estimates, Liberal Senator for NSW Hollie Hughes questioned Anderson about Abu Gosh’s tweets, saying this “demonstrates him showing extreme racist and antisemitic views about Israelis”.
Anderson said that Abu Gosh was a “respected journalist” but that “his personal use of social media has been incredibly disappointing”, adding that “he’s certainly being counselled around personal use of social media, and I’m not at the end of the process that we’re in at the moment”.
Senator Hughes asked Anderson, “How do you say to Jewish Australians … ‘Give us your money while we employ a known antisemite to report on the Middle East?'” Anderson replied, “Our reporting has not been found to be antisemitic, nor will it be, with the checks and measures that we have in the moment.”
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council’s executive director Colin Rubenstein said, “It is frustrating that the ABC’s internal review process is still ongoing after two months, especially given Anderson’s unequivocal admission that not only did Abu Gosh breach the ABC’s social media policy, but the extreme nature of the tweets has undermined his ability to report impartially on Israeli-Palestinian matters.”
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