Triple J courts further outrage from fans after it knocks back freedom of information request for details on why Shake It Off was excluded

The details of Taylor Swift’s disqualification from Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown seem likely to remain a secret after the ABC declined to release documents concerning the reasons for the decision.

The #Tay4Hottest100 campaign, spearheaded by BuzzFeed Australia in January, would have led Swift’s single Shake It Off to the number 12 spot in the Hottest 100, had it not been disqualified.

The ABC invoked a section of the Freedom of Information Act that allows the public broadcaster to refuse requests for “program material” – any document acquired or created in the creation of a program – regardless of whether it was used in the final broadcast or publication.



The ABC received four requests about the campaign. Two were refused outright, while two others – one of which was lodged by Guardian Australia – allowed access to some documents. Most of those were copies of emails declining journalists’ requests for comment.

The ABC’s corporate governance head, Judith Maude, said part of Guardian Australia’s request applied to documents that “would not have been created but for Triple J’s Hottest 100 broadcast”, and so the ABC did not have to release them.

The extent of the program material exemption has been a previous source of controversy. In 2006 the federal court ruled that the ABC was entitled to block access to requests for details of complaints it received in relation to its coverage of the Middle East.

Though the documents do not clear up the reason for Shake It Off’s exclusion from the Hottest 100, they do reveal the extent of the outrage over the decision, with listeners writing in to criticise the process as anti-democratic, “rigged” and “smacking of snobbish elitism – something the ABC could well avoid in the current political climate”.

“I think it’s shameful that you removed Taylor Swift from the Hottest 100,” wrote one Victoria-based listener. “I will never tune into JJJ again.”

Another, from New South Wales, pointed out inconsistencies in the station’s eligibility criteria. “The station claims to be a ‘democracy’ yet then decides to disqualify an artist as they do not like her. I also found the way they handled the situation to be immature and disrespectful.”

One listener wrote in to say that, for the first time, they would not be buying the Hottest 100 CD out of protest.

“I have all the rest but I believe you have sold out. ‘Musical democracy’ my arse, you might say. The people voted and their votes should be respected. This was not an American election where the outcome is predetermined.”

Even those against including Shake It Off in the Hottest 100 criticised the station’s lack of comment on the controversy. A few days before the countdown on Australia Day, a listener in NSW wrote in to urge the station to stand by its principles.

“Your silence ... demonstrates a loss of ethical backbone. ... Please listen carefully, Triple J ... The moment you start playing Taylor Swift, you will have absolutely no excuse not to play Miley Cyrus and all her merry friends.”

Triple J released a Buzzfeed-esque list of reasons it had excluded the song on the day the Hottest 100 was announced, but has otherwise refused to comment on the controversy.