Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has demanded an investigation from the ABC over its coverage of calls to lift the Commonwealth ban on using telehealth and other carriage services for voluntary assisted dying (VAD).
The Australian reported that in a letter to the ABC ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, he has claimed that the national broadcaster had breached its own guidelines on impartiality.
He asked the ombudsman “whether its platforms … operated to amplify one side of a contentious policy debate”.
VAD is legal throughout Australia, apart from the Northern Territory, which is expected to pass enabling legislation soon.
However, a Federal law banning advice about committing suicide over the phone or internet also bans telehealth consultations for VAD.
VAD advocate Andrew Denton, a former ABC TV host and comedian and founder of Go Gentle Australia, has been campaigning vigorously to have the ban overturned.
Archbishop Fisher cited four occasions in nine days in July when Denton promoted his views on ABC platforms. Three of them appeared before the ALP national conference in July which supported an end to the Commonwealth ban on telehealth consultations.
In his letter, the Archbishop Fisher provided detailed documentation of the ABC’s failure to present the contentious issue impartially.
He wrote: “Over a period of nine days the ABC repeatedly provided the founder of an organisation established to advocate for euthanasia and assisted suicide law reform, with opportunities across television, radio, online and social media to make the case for amending a federal prohibition on the use of telehealth for euthanasia and assisted suicide.
“The principal arguments for retaining the prohibition were not put forward by those who hold them; rather, they were largely summarised or characterised by Denton.
“The imbalance is particularly significant because three of the relevant items, as well as two associated social media posts, were published or broadcast in the four days immediately preceding an Australian Labor Party National Conference vote on the issue being advocated.
“The subsequent 7.30 interview occurred in the context of a foreshadowed parliamentary attempt to amend the law.
“In those circumstances, providing an alternate perspective at some indefinite later time could not remedy the absence of diversity during the period in which the issue was the subject of an active and imminent political decision.
“Given the significance of the issue, the imminence of the political decisions to which the coverage related, and the ABC’s particular obligation to maintain public confidence in its impartiality, I ask that these matters be carefully investigated and addressed.”
The archbishop also pointed out that Denton had misrepresented remarks that he made 15 years ago, in 2011, on “redemptive suffering”.
“Denton omitted (my) immediately preceding response, which clearly states that the goal of the Catholic Church is to reduce suffering,” he wrote in his letter to the ombudsman.
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