Media authority finds TV presenter’s declaration of endemic sexual abuse in Indigenous communities was blunted by other panellists’ views

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Channel Ten did not breach broadcasting codes for racism during a Studio 10 segment on Australia Day protests earlier this year because co-host Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s sweeping statement about endemic sexual abuse in Indigenous communities was countered by guest Yumi Stynes.

On 28 January Kennerley had attacked the motives of the protesters who wanted the date of Australia Day changed by implying they were ignoring the alleged rape of children and women in the “outback”.

“Has any single one of those 5,000 people waving the flags saying how inappropriate the day is, has any one of them been out to the outback where children, where babies and five-year-olds are being raped, their mothers are being raped, their sisters are being raped,” Kennerley said.

She was challenged by Stynes who said: “That is not even faintly true, Kerri-Anne, and you’re sounding quite racist now.”

The Australian Communications and Media Authority cleared the licensee, Ten, after complaints it had breached code 2.6.2 when it provoked serious contempt of Indigenous people on the basis of race.

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“[Acma] considers that the emphatic and sweeping suggestion by Ms Kennerley of endemic sexual abuse in Indigenous communities could be capable of provoking strong negative feelings in a reasonable person,” the report said.

However, it found no breach because Stynes then accused the veteran TV presenter of sounding racist.

“The segment included material which offered counterpoints to Ms Kennerley’s views and thereby contextualised them as only one of a number of views on the issue,” the report said.

Acma said Kennerley’s statement “would have been taken by viewers to mean ‘that sexual abuse, including child sexual abuse, was endemic in remote Indigenous communities’ ”.

“Sexual abuse, and particularly child sexual abuse, is regarded by the community with abhorrence,” it said.

However, when the segment was considered as a whole – with mitigating comments by Stynes and other panellists – it was made clear that sexual violence and abuse in remote Indigenous communities “was an issue over which people had differing points of view”.

“The segment was not, therefore, likely in all the circumstances, to provoke or perpetuate in the ordinary reasonable viewer, intense dislike or serious contempt against Indigenous people because of race,” the report said.

“Accordingly, the Acma considers that the high threshold tests of ‘intense dislike’ or ‘serious’ contempt have not been met in the circumstances of this broadcast, and the licensee did not breach clause 2.6.2 of the code.”

Other mitigating factors were that Kennerley’s comments were “primarily a vehicle for criticism of the Australia Day protesters for not actively addressing the welfare of Indigenous people” and were generalised and did not refer to perpetrators.

During the discussion Kennerley said “Aboriginal elder women” were desperate for help to prevent sexual violence in their communities but the Australia Day protesters had done “nothing” or “zippo”.

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“Where are these people on one day of the year?” she said. “You’d be better off going and doing something positive.”

Stynes said Kennerley’s implication was that “women aren’t being raped here in big cities and children aren’t being raped here in big cities” and she defended the protesters.

“With that statement, you’re actually implying that those 5,000 protesters, none of whom you know personally, are all lazy and idle and indolent,” she said.

The explosive segment in which Stymes and Kennerley clashed arose from a news story about a pub in inner-city Sydney that had implemented a dress code on Australia Day which banned any attire that incorporated the Australian flag.

Kennerley told the Sydney Morning Herald that the media authority had cleared her and its headline was “ ‘I am not a racist’: Kennerley cleared over Australia Day comments”.

“I’m really happy that common sense has prevailed,” she told the Nine newspaper. “Anyone who knows me knows very well that I am not a racist.”

Yumi Stynes (@yumichild) Don't be tricked by this headline.



ACMA didn't clear KAK. It cleared Channel 10. ACMA found that KAK's comments were based on RACE and were capable of "generating strong negative feelings..." https://t.co/16IS2aWsx9

But Stynes pointed out on Twitter that Acma had not cleared Kennerley but had cleared Ten.

The Herald added a clarification.

“Clarification: a previous version of the story said that Kerri-Anne Kennerley had been exonerated whereas it was the Studio 10 segment that was cleared.”