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Minister seeks answers over Q&A

Mitch Fifield is seeking an explanation from the ABC after Khaled Elomar asked a question of the Q&A panel.

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Communications Minister Mitch Fifield is seeking an explanation from the ABC after Khaled Elomar asked a question of the Q&A panel, following reports of derogatory social media posts.

“I have and will continue to raise matters of community ­concern with the management of the ABC,’’ he told The Australian.

The ABC defended the selection of its audience members, saying audience members were checked as much as is practicable on social media by producers.

“Khaled Elomar registered to be on Monday night’s Q&A through the normal processes and there was nothing out of the ordinary about his appearance on the program,” it said in a statement.

Senator Fifield said that while the ABC should be a place for vigorous debate and a variety of perspectives, there was no place for “abusive and derog­atory” attacks in political debate.

7 Responses

  1. I’m a little baffled as to what the issue is. So he posts stupid comments on his social media but on the night he asked a reasonable question without any derogatory remarks. He isn’t a TV personalitly what does it matter what he does off air?

    1. The ABC board has been stacked with LNP appointees. And the new boss , Michelle Guthrie, is a friend of Rupert Murdochs. During the entire federal election campaign, the ABC were clearly biased towards the LNP. The only complaint about perceived left wing bias came from Gerard Henderson on the Insiders when he bitterly complained about the ABC allowing a clip where Jacquie Lambie called Peta Cretin a ‘bitch’. Since the election was held – and narrowly won by the LNP – we’ve seen a number of attacks by rightwingers about leftwing bias again. Andrew Bolt and Rita Panahi have complained about the ABC denying rightwingers their right to free speech and now Mitch Ifield is questioning the right to free speech for a muslim audience member of Q & A. This is going to continue until the ABC board and management are cleaned out and a proper independent board is installed. ABC will lose more…

  2. “…there was no place for ‘abusive and derog­atory’ attacks in political debate”
    You might like to have a chat with some of your colleagues about that.

  3. Can’t the government just butt out!!
    Just because they provide funding shouldn’t mean they can get involved every time something minor happens. This would never happen on a commercial channel.

    1. Seriously, the ABC is funded by the taxpayer, it is amazing that a bloke like this never gets an opportunity to say anything when the debate is on gay or women’s rights but can pretend to be the voice of reason when discussing Islamic issues.

      There are 60 people on the Q&A team and no one checks their Facebook page? So much for checking their social media

      If Q&A was truly about questioning people and teasing out their opinions, it would spend less time on these stunts and more time on finding those who can provide reasoned debate

    2. It’s because they provide the funding is the reason why they are forced to get involved! If they receive complaints, then they have to look into it. The commercial networks also have to follow strict guidelines and are subject to fines if they don’t adhere to these. I remember John Howard stating that big brother should be taken off air as he thought it was a stupid show, plus Sonia Kruger has just been condemned by sections of the government and public over an opinion.

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