Fed: Jones accuses broadcast watchdog of bias

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2007
Fed: Jones accuses broadcast watchdog of bias

By Belinda Tasker, Peter Veness and Vincent Morello

SYDNEY, April 11 AAP - Radio broadcaster Alan Jones has lashed out at the communications
watchdog, accusing it of bias for ruling he encouraged violence and vilified people before
the notorious Cronulla race riot.

Some of Jones' most prominent supporters, including his boss John Singleton and Prime
Minister John Howard, rushed to his defence today amid controversy over the Australian
Communication and Media Authority's (ACMA) finding.

Jones went on the offensive during his breakfast show on Sydney's Radio 2GB this morning,
saying ACMA's findings were biased and based on the complaints of people who had not heard
his broadcasts.

In its findings released yesterday, ACMA said 2GB's licence holder, Harbour Broadcasting,
twice breached the broadcast code by airing certain comments by Jones in the days before
the December 2005 Cronulla riot.

Jones' comments contravened the code because they were likely to "encourage violence
or brutality" and "vilify people of Lebanese background and of Middle Eastern background".

But Jones slammed ACMA, saying it had "little radio experience or knowledge of talkback
radio" and that he had never incited violence on his program.

"On countless occasions ... I had as I have regularly on this program opposed violence
and brutality and urged people to allow the law to take its course," he told his listeners.

Jones said people who had complained about his comments before the Cronulla riot had
only heard excerpts broadcast on ABC radio.

"If people don't listen to the program all the time, why then are 26 seconds of comment
that I might have made, chosen to hang me?

"This outfit which regulate radio ... if that doesn't constitute bias I don't know what does."

In the days before the riot, Jones read out comments from a listener, calling on bikie
gangs to confront "Lebanese thugs" at the Cronulla railway station.

But today he played another excerpt from around the same time of him telling a listener
not to promote the riot, which eventually ensued on December 11.

The prime minister defended Jones, describing him as an "outstanding broadcaster".

"I don't think he's a person who encourages prejudice in the Australian community,
not for one moment, but he is a person who articulates what a lot of people think," Mr
Howard told reporters.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said he would continue to be interviewed on air by Jones,
despite ACMA's ruling.

"In terms of the future appearances (on) Alan Jones' program, there's nothing I've
read at this stage that would cause me not to go on," he told ABC radio.

2GB's majority owner, advertising guru John Singleton, said while he did not always
agree with his star radio presenter's comments, ACMA's ruling was wrong.

"The findings are based on nothing," he told ABC radio.

"(The ACMA inquiry's) taken 18 months, it's cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars,
probably the taxpayer millions of dollars and is a finding that's totally inappropriate,
totally wrong, with no penalty."

Penalties being considered by ACMA include a possible suspension or cancellation of
2GB's licence, fines and training programs for the radio station's staff.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has ordered ACMA and commercial radio operators
to immediately review the industry's code of practice in the wake of the Jones case.

A review had been scheduled to begin in September, but Senator Coonan said given recent
complaints about talkback radio programs it should be brought forward.

AAP bt/hn/sp

KEYWORD: JONES NIGHTLEAD

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