Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, along with newspaper sports journalist Rebecca Wilson, have been targeted with death threats after Wilson revealed the names of banned soccer spectators and Alan Jones followed up on air with comments likening them to terrorists.
Rebecca Wilson’s newspaper column identified fans banned from A-League matches. Alan Jones backed her views on his program this week disucssing it in his regular segment with her and asking her if the banned fans acted like terrorists.
Many people criticised Jones and Wilson’s comments, but some went too far. Hate tweets and death threats to the commentators have been building all week. Wilson, a former radio breakfast presenter on Vega, revealed details of the threats on Channel 7 News.
Speaking on the 7 News report, Jones said: “All these people have done by their behaviour is to prove the validity of the things that Rebecca and I were talking about on air.”
An offensive parody of the whole saga drew Ray Hadley into the controversy, when a self styled satirst known as Hektik Hektor put together the parody, which resembled a jihadist video, insulting all three commentators.
At one stage in the video, Hektor makes a throat cutting gesture, saying “my neck is itchy.” At the end of the video however, his message says the whole thing is a joke.
Football Federation Australia has called for an end to “physical threats and death threats” directed at Wilson, ahead of a planned walk out from A-League fans who believe they have been treated badly by the leaking of names on the banned list. Some are considering legal action against Wilson’s employer, News Limited.
Western Sydney’s main supporter group issued a statement criticising the privacy breach:
“People’s lives and livelihoods have been jeopardised due to the existence of a list that has been created without due process. Many of these fans, some of which are under 18, have not been charged or convicted of offences.”