SBS staff remain unable to use the word Palestine in news stories despite the federal government recognising its statehood at the UN last month, as tensions over reporting on the conflict in Gaza remain high in newsrooms across the country two years after the October 7 massacre.
While some of those tensions have been momentarily alleviated after Australia last month became one of more than 150 nations that recognise the State of Palestine, staff at the multicultural broadcaster say their organisation’s own response to meet the moment – or lack thereof – is stark. […]
By contrast, three days after the Albanese government’s recognition of Palestine, the ABC updated its own policies permitting ABC reporting use Palestine when referring to its geography, history, community and the intended state encompassing the Occupied Palestinian Territories, editorial director Gavin Fang said in an email reported by this masthead last week.
Is that in contrast? The ABC’s guidelines sound quite similar.
Based only on my reading of this article, the ABC would permit calling the place “Palestine”, for example saying “Gaza is part of Palestine” (geography) or that a person being interviewed/talked about is “from Palestine” (community). SBS would not.
I used to think ABC/SBS were some of the best quality news in the world. I now them as lowly state propaganda rags.
