Updated ,first published
The ABC’s flagship investigative program Four Corners had a culture that favoured limiting knowledge about anonymous sources, fell short on fact-checking and had inadequate upward referral processes, its independent ombudsman has found.
The ombudsman’s report into Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway, two episodes fronted by sacked reporter Mahmood Fazal, was released on Tuesday afternoon and found the programs failed to meet the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy, fair and honest dealing and independence and integrity.
“The breaches were the result of a combination of factors,” the report reads. “These include management’s failure to properly interrogate, inadequate upward referral, a culture that favoured limiting knowledge about sources given perceived risks, insufficient verification and fact-checking, and a failure to provide the audience with the context necessary to assess the reliability of the information presented.”
The two episodes examined by the ombudsman featured the same man, Benjamin Aitken, who was first depicted as a former drug addict in recovery and then as an active methamphetamine dealer whose identity was hidden from the audience.
Fazal has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that his stories went through the program’s standard editorial checks.
“They just keep going on attacking me, my work, my sources, and apparently I’m the one that’s betrayed the ABC?” Fazal said on social media in July.
The former bikie turned star reporter was sacked by the ABC in May over a separate incident in which he launched an external podcast which featured online gambling advertising without receiving the proper approvals.
The ombudsman was scathing of how Four Corners and Fazal handled information about Aitken. Important information relating to anonymous, disguised and confidential sources involved in criminal activity was either not verified or not disclosed to audiences, the ombudsman said.
“As a result, audiences were given a misleading impression of who key contributors were, the basis on which the ABC was relying on them and the level of confidence that could reasonably be placed in their claims,” the ombudsman said.
The ombudsman made a number of recommendations, including implementing stricter standards relating to the use of anonymous sources, improved approval and fact-checking processes and editorial oversight of high-risk stories. Her report called for a further investigation into both programs and their use of anonymous sources, which is already underway.
The ABC removed the two episodes in July after its news division conducted its own, separate investigation. A third Four Corners episode fronted by Fazal was later removed along with several other stories, including from investigative audio program Background Briefing.
All senior ABC staff in the chain of command above Fazal at the time the episodes aired have since left. New Four Corners boss Joel Tozer overhauled the program’s standards when he took control earlier this year.
An ABC spokesperson said the board had requested the ombudsman’s investigation into the two episodes.
“Both programs have now been removed from ABC platforms and the ABC has published a correction, acknowledging that aspects of the programs were materially misleading,” the spokesperson said. “To ensure the ABC’s editorial standards are met in future, the Ombudsman has made a number of recommendations. The ABC accepts the recommendations in full and has begun implementing them.
“The ombudsman’s recommendations will strengthen the ABC’s editorial processes.”
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.From our partners
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