ABC probes freelancer’s alleged Hamas ties

The ABC is investigating whether a freelancer who filed video for 7.30 was a Hamas operative, editorial director told Senate estimates on Tuesday.

Gavin Fang confirmed the broadcaster had looked into claims about Roshdi Sarraj, who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza on October 22, 2023, and said the ABC had approached the IDF for clarification.

“We have attempted to get some clarification from the IDF about their position on this, and as yet, they have not provided us with any evidence to suggest otherwise,” Fang said.

He said that to the best of the ABC’s knowledge Sarraj had been a legitimate journalist, and that the Committee to Protect Journalists had not removed him from its list of journalists killed.

“There have been claims made but we have to act on a bigger evidential base than that,” he said.

“Until we are able to find something that goes to the veracity of that claim, I don’t think it’s incumbent on us to make a decision, to declare that that person was a member of Hamas.”

Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson, who raised the matter, pointed to a number of significant reports corroborating the claim, while conceding the ABC may not have known at the time it engaged him.

The Australian reported this month that Sarraj was among 170 media workers killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, who were identified as Hamas operatives following an IDF investigation based on multiple intelligence sources. It described him as a military operative in the military wing. He had also worked for the BBC, Le Monde and Radio France.

Sarraj was publicly acknowledged by 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson after his death, with the program extending condolences to his family.

AIJAC executive director Colin Rubenstein told The Australian he was disappointed but not surprised, describing it as further evidence of how far the ABC‘s coverage of the war had departed from standards of impartiality, and renewing his call for independent external review of the broadcaster’s Gaza coverage.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has examined the ABC‘s role, with Fang appearing in July.