Editorial: ABC’s Middle East coverage has been flawed but that comes as no surprise

As our nation’s primary public broadcaster, the ABC holds a unique position.

It also carries a heavy responsibility.

It should cover the important news stories in an impartial manner and get the facts right.

With a taxpayer-funded budget of about $1.2 billion a year, there is good reason to scrutinise whether it meets that obligation.

Its coverage of Middle East affairs, particularly since the murderous invasion of Israel by the Iranian proxy Hamas on October 7, 2023, has too often fallen short of that requirement.

On Thursday a hearing of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion — launched after the massacre of 15 people at Bondi Beach in December — was told of serious concerns about the ABC coverage and its general editorial approach. Australian Special Envoy on anti-Semitism Jillian Segal told the commission of concerns that the public broadcaster did not properly understand anti-Semitism and was painting Israel “in a negative light”.

“There is a perception — and a very strongly held perception — from the Jewish community that the way in which the Gaza conflict, in particular, and the activities that are going on in the Middle East, are reported has created an impression of great negativity about Israel, and that there is this conflation of anti-Semitism,” Ms Segal said. “It’s a very serious perception that a community under attack here in Australia feels that the trusted national broadcaster is not presenting the situation in the Middle East in a way that they think is not biased.”

Ms Segal argued the ABC’s internal processes could be improved, and noted that its ombudsman was appointed by and reported to the board, and therefore remained part of the same organisation and culture.

“They can mark their own homework,” she said.

“They are, with respect, judge, counsel, and jury.”

Ms Segal suggested the ABC needed an oversight body to examine perceptions of bias over the totality of its Middle East and anti-Semitism coverage, not just complaints about individual stories.

ABC editorial director Gavin Fang rejected calls for a new external regulator.

But he told the commission the ABC’s use of an inaccurate United Nations claim in May 2025 that 14,000 babies would die in Gaza within 48 hours if more aid wasn’t delivered was “a bad mistake”.

The word “bad” hardly does justice to the blunder.

Mr Fang also told the commission there were no plans at the ABC for a systemic review of concerns over its Middle East conflict coverage.

But he said he was “conscious that our coverage of the war in the Middle East has an impact on the Australian community, and is felt very strongly across the community”.

That is true.

And it is another reason why the broadcaster should be held to account over its reporting on the issue.

In the end, anybody who watched the ABC’s Middle East coverage since 2023 does not need to be told that it has been flawed.

They know it has been.

All they had to do was tune in.

The national broadcaster carries much expectation.

It needs to take steps to do much better.