Four Corners sparks Facebook hate

THE Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) plans to take up the issue of anti-Semitic posts on the ABC’s Facebook page directly with the national broadcaster.

A slew of offensive comments was posted on the page after the screening of the Four Corners program “Stone Cold Justice” two weeks ago, about Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in the West Bank.

According to ECAJ research officer Julie Nathan, “several comments referred to Jews as a cancer and called for Hitler to return”.

ECAJ president Robert Goot said “some but not all” of the offensive comments had been removed by the ABC after the former published an article in The Australian about the posts.

“The ECAJ continues to monitor the Four Corners Facebook page and proposes to take this matter up directly with the ABC in the near future,” he said.

Four Corners executive producer Sue Spencer refuted the claim that many anti-Semitic comments had remained online for more than a week. “Moderating has occurred on a daily basis since broadcast,” she said on Monday.

“If you visit the Four Corners Facebook site today … what you will not find is anything that incites hatred or breaches the ABC’s editorial policies.”

However, when The AJN viewed the page on Tuesday, comments remained such as “Judaism is increasingly looking like a very ugly religion hiding behind a false conception of god”, “If the Nazis were bad, what do you call this?” and “Rupert Murdoch and his ilk have clearly sacrificed impartiality for the economic and political expediency of driving their own Zionist puppet masters’ agenda”.

Online Hate Prevention Institute CEO Andre Oboler said the ABC needed to recognise when they are posting content “which is likely to attract responses that include hate speech”.

“Their usual levels of moderation will be inadequate, and it is unacceptable for them to simply do their best with these limited and insufficient resources once they choose to open that can of worms.”

GARETH NARUNSKY

ECAJ president Robert Goot