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Above: Screenshots showing Syrians whose perspectives were ignored by Australian Story‘s ‘The Road From Damascus’.  (Screenshots were taken of videos posted online or of Syrian TV.)

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Email to Managing Director of the ABC, Ms Michelle Guthrie

17 January 2017

Phil Davies
phil_davies@optusnet.com.au

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Managing Director of the ABC

Ms Michelle Guthrie

GPO Box 9994

Sydney NSW 2001

RE: Letter of complaint to ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs

Program: ABC TV, Australian Story

Date of broadcast: 21/11/2016; available on Australian Story website

Title: The Road From Damascus

Producers: Winsome Denyer, Sophie McNeill

Presenter: Sophie McNeill

Research:  Fouad AbuGosh

Specialist Contributor: Caroline Jones

17 January 2017

Dear Ms Guthrie,

Because of the seriousness of the matter detailed below, we believe it is appropriate to bring it to your direct attention for consideration.

We, the signatories of this letter, believe that Australian Story’s ‘The Road From Damascus’ breaches the ABC Code of Practice, particularly in regard to Accuracy; Impartiality and Diversity of Perspectives; and Harm and Offence. We maintain that the program’s presenter, ABC Middle East correspondent Ms Sophie McNeill, has allowed her personal views and friendships to influence her journalism. In the program, she takes a credulous approach to the ‘opposition’ in Syria, effectively giving credibility to rebels that are affiliated with al-Qaeda.

We maintain that the breaches of the Code are significant and relate to highly contentious matters which impact on Australia’s security. Also, these matters are the subject of ongoing debate about the war in Syria and deserve the highest standards of journalistic practice.

Please note, signatories of this letter include four Syrians in Australia on humanitarian visas.

SUMMARY

Breaches of the ABC Code of Practice that relate to Accuracy; Impartiality and Diversity of Perspectives; and Harm and Offence

1. Australian Story’s ‘The Road From Damascus’ unduly favors a militarized ‘opposition’ in Syria, which is widely known to include foreign ‘jihadists’ fighting for an Islamic state or for a Caliphate. Australian Story displays this bias without making reasonable efforts to ensure that material facts presented are accurate and without giving due consideration to both the wider context of the war in Syria and the suffering of people at the hands of anti-government armed groups.

2. Australian Story introduces Mr Khaled Naanaa, the main character in the program, as compassionate and credible. He is presented as a close personal friend of Ms McNeill, and this gives his claims additional weight. His assertions are not questioned or qualified despite the fact that there is reason to believe he provided material support to Ahrar al-Sham, an armed group supported by Saudi Arabia and Turkey and affiliated with al-Qaeda through its membership of Jaish al-Fatah (the Army of Conquest). Australian academic Dr Jeremy Salt describes Ahrar al-Sham as ‘one of the most violent takfiri/jihadist groups in Syria’. (See the letter Dr Salt sent Australian Story below. We have his permission to include it in this complaint letter.)

3. Australian Story’s tacit acceptance of Ms McNeill’s bias would indicate to viewers that there is, in effect, an implicit ABC editorial policy with regard to Syria expressed in the program. This contravenes the Code of Practice and makes it unlikely that the viewpoints of Syrians opposed to the militarized ‘opposition’ will be given equal time and respect in such high-profile ABC programs as Australian Story.

4. ‘The Road From Damascus’ makes no effort to ensure the accuracy of its fact-based content through the presentation of a range of perspectives and contending views. No consideration is given to the fact that there are alternative views that an ABC audience would find even more compelling. Given the contentious and highly politicized nature of the matters dealt with in the program, ABC viewers would expect that all fact-claims had been carefully checked and no relevant material omitted.  We maintain that this was not done.

5. Australian Story does not consider the views and experiences of those Syrians now in Australia on humanitarian visas who oppose the rebels. It does not consider the distress that the program could cause these Syrians by giving credibility to a ‘rebel’ supporter, and thus potentially breaches their trust in the national broadcaster.

6. We hold that ABC audiences would expect to be informed of the views and experiences of Syrians who support the continuation of their secular, liberal multi-faith society, which provides freedom of religion and equal opportunities for women. Presenting their views could have helped address the issues raised by Ms McNeill’s pro-‘opposition’ bias. Furthermore, as the national broadcaster, the ABC has a commitment to basic democratic principles, including the rule of law, freedom of speech and religion, parliamentary democracy and equality of opportunity. In the light of this, Syrians genuinely committed to these beliefs and values should have had their views presented in Australian Story.

7. We maintain that the information presented in the program cannot be considered reliable because it favors the testimony of ‘rebel’ supporters, namely Mr Naanaa, James Sadri (The Syria Campaign), Dr Ammar Ghanem (Syrian American Medical Society), and Widney Brown (Physicians for Human Rights). By giving implicit support to ‘opposition’ armed groups, the national broadcaster does not act in the public interest. It could contribute to the decision of some Australians to support jihadist extremism both here and overseas, which is in contravention of government policy and detrimental to our national security.

There is extensive documentation on file in support of our concerns and we would be pleased to forward it, upon request. Dr Salt’s letter to Australian Story presented below highlights the need for a much more sophisticated and balanced commentary on Syria than that presented by Australian Story.

Our most basic concern is that Australian Story gives weight to people who support the militarized opposition in Syria and denies a voice to the vast majority of Syrians, people who would respect Australia’s democratic beliefs and who would be potential victims of that ‘opposition’.

Another key concern is that despite the pro-opposition bias in ‘The Road From Damascus’, the ‘opposition’ is not defined. There is no description of its violence, agenda or tactics, so ABC viewers could be misled into thinking the ‘opposition’, as represented by Mr Naanaa, is a homogeneous benign force.  Yet, that ‘opposition’ includes Ahrar al-Sham in control of Madaya where Mr Naanaa worked in a field hospital as well as rebels and foreign ‘jihadists’ who besieged the towns of Kafriya and Fu’ah.

FOR THE COMPLETE LETTER TO THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE ABC, PLEASE GO TO THE PDF LINKED BELOW.

letter-to-managing-director-abc-re-australian-story-on-syria_general-distribution

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Screenshots below include the following (not necessarily in this order):

Sheik Yousef Qaradawi issuing a fatwa on his weekly Al-Jazeera program, published on Youtube 2 January 2013; a mainstream program on Al-Jazeera broadcast on 8 May 2015 and titled ‘Do the Alawites Deserve Genocide?’; Sheik Adnan Arour, a Syrian cleric based in Saudi Arabia, declaring what will be done to those who oppose the ‘revolution’; a sign from the ‘revolution’ in Kafranbel, Syria; article in The Australian concerning Egyptian-born Australian Mostafa Mahamed, who has been a spokesperson for a group that has been affiliated with al-Qaeda; Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth and his Australian wife Dr Annie Sparrow at a White House function; Sheikh Abdullah al-Mohaisany, the Saudi cleric who recruits young boys from refugee camps for an al-Qaeda style  ‘revolution’ in Syria.