The ABC has announced changes to the composition and operation of its Independent Complaints Review Panel.
The panel convenor is to be Michael Foster QC, a former judge of the Federal and NSW Supreme courts.
The other members are former ABC, 2GB and SBS broadcaster, Jane Singleton, and Susan Brooks, who has extensive experience in managing regulatory risks and consumer issues in the public and private sectors.
The three new people will replace the current panel of five from 1 June.
ABC Managing Director, Russell Balding, says: “As I foreshadowed to Senate Estimates committee hearings on a number of occasions, the ABC is in a continual process of seeking to improve, where necessary, its corporate governance procedures. That includes complaints’ handling.
“The reforms to the appointment process of the ICRP will remove any notion that the body is not at arms length from the ABC.
“I have long held the view that the ABC has the best and fairest complaints’ handling procedures of any media organisation in Australia. These reforms simply strengthen those procedures.”
In a statement, the ABC Board says it has approved a number of reforms in relation to the appointment processes and administrative procedures of the Independent Complaints’ Review Panel (ICRP) to strengthen its role as an independent body and make its administrative functions more efficient.
The Board established the ICRP in 1991 to facilitate the independent review of complaints at no cost to the complainant. The Panel accepts complaints, once ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs have reviewed them.
Procedural improvements to the ICRP include:
Appointment process: The Board invited two independent bodies – the St James Ethics Centre and the Communications Law Centre – to nominate qualified persons for the Board to consider as potential panellists. The Board has chosen a panellist from each nominating organisation and has added a third panellist (the convenor of the ICRP) of its own choosing. In the past, the ABC Board chose ICRP members without input from other sources.
Factual inaccuracy: In addition to its current brief of reviewing complaints about serious bias, lack of balance or unfair treatment, the reformed ICRP will also review written complaints, alleging serious and specific cases of factual inaccuracy.
Online: The ICRP’s review role will now explicitly include material, published on ABC Online, as well as material broadcast on radio or television.
Legal: Complainants will no longer be required to sign a waiver, forgoing the right to pursue legal remedies prior to the ICRP accepting a complaint for review.
Procedural fairness:
* The ICRP will provide reasons to complainants when it decides not to accept a matter for review.
* The ICRP will notify the ABC and invite it to provide written submissions, along with relevant program material on cases it accepts. The Panel will interact with ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs.
* There will be a ‘preliminary’ stage of the investigation process where the ICRP will inform the ABC of its decision and invite further submission of further relevant information. At the Panel’s discretion, this opportunity will also be extended to the complainant.
* A 60 day time limit will be established for the Panel to complete investigations of individual matters in normal circumstances.
Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre, says: “It is of critical importance that all sectors of the Australian community have confidence in the integrity of the ABC and its complaint handling process.
“In making these new appointments and in reforming the overall process, the Board of the ABC has demonstrated its own clear accountability, ultimately owed to the people of Australia, to ensure that an expert and disinterested panel can assess and help to resolve complaints and, in doing so, maintain and strengthen the quality of ABC programming – in all its diverse forms.”
Dr Derek Wilding, Director of the Communications Law Centre UNSW, says: “The overhaul of the Independent Complaints’ Review Panel demonstrates a commitment by the ABC to provide a genuine, independent means of addressing the most serious complaints.
“The Communications Law Centre has participated in both the review of the process itself and the appointment of the panel. We are satisfied that the new ICRP will provide an effective mechanism for review of complaints relating to serious bias, lack of balance or unfair treatment, and serious and specific cases of factual inaccuracy.
“The ICRP will be an independent source of review, standing between initial complaints to the broadcaster and those matters ultimately addressed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, (soon to become the Australian Communications and Media Authority).”
The existing ICRP Panellists (until 1 June) are: Ted Thomas (Convenor), Margaret Jones, Prof Michael Chesterman, Stepan Kerkyasharian and Bob Johnson.
Russell Balding has thanked the five members for their distinguished, long and exemplary service, wishing them all well.
“The current ICRP has been instrumental in bringing a high level of governance to ABC complaints. While ABC Board appointed, the Panel acted with rigorous independence.
“It is a pioneering body, years ahead of its time. The outgoing panellists have done an exemplary job and discharged their duties in a professional way.”