Mark Scott defends the Walkley award-winning correspondent, saying she is doing a ‘strong job’ and deserves to be judged on her work

ABC correspondent Sophie McNeill was strongly defended by managing director Mark Scott on Monday night after coming under attack at a parliamentary committee for her reporting from the Middle East.



Liberal senator Eric Abetz asked Scott why McNeill was appointed to the Middle East post when she had stated that she admired journalists John Pilger and Robert Fisk, who held strong anti-Israeli views and pro-Palestinian views.



In a late-night Senate estimates committee hearing, Scott said McNeill was doing a “strong job” covering Syria, Gaza, Jerusalem and Syrian refugees in one of the most dangerous posts in the world where reporters needed “significant courage”.



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Abetz said: “I am just wondering what research was done into Ms McNeill’s attitude to matters [in the] Middle East before her appointment and whether it is appropriate to allow somebody in that position to allow their emotions to get into their reporting.”



Scott said McNeill, who took up the post in February, was an accomplished journalist with an extensive history of reportage from the region and was appointed on merit.



“I wasn’t involved but she was subjected to a rigorous appointment selection process and they did discuss at length her experience as a reporter in the Middle East,” Scott said.



“She has lived in Jerusalem and Beirut, filed from Lebanon, Afghanistan, Gaza, Pakistan and Kurdistan for SBS.”



Abetz then criticised McNeill’s description of an alleged young female Palestinian attacker in a story on 7.30 in October in which the reporter said: “Five days ago here at this checkpoint, Israeli soldiers say that this friendly, gifted student tried to stab them, so they shot her dead.”



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Scott said: “There has been a barrage of complaints from some sectors about Ms McNeill. She is a very talented young journalist; she is a journalist that has matured significantly in her career. We thought she was ready for this posting and I think she deserves to be judged on her work.”



Scott said McNeill had reported both sides of the story and had filed from Jerusalem about the terror and the fear installed in civilians by Palestinian attacks and that she had attempted to “show the full breadth and range of this story”.



“Fundamentally I think she was doing a good job under difficult circumstances under extraordinary scrutiny.”



Scott said McNeill had twice been awarded young journalist of the year, won a Walkley for reporting in 2010 and had filed from all over the world.



“This reporter is under more scrutiny that any other foreign correspondent filing from any part of the world in my experience at the ABC,” he said.



“Some of her reporting of the refugee crisis has been absolutely outstanding and brought to bear insights into the horror and complexity.



“Before this reporter set foot in the Middle East there was a campaign against her personally taking up that role. I am saying that she is a highly recognised and acclaimed reporter … she deserved that appointment and she needs to be judged on her work.”



Last month an ABC spokeswoman defended McNeill from attack in the Australian Jewish News. “Sophie McNeill is a multi-award winning journalist who was sent to Jerusalem because of her excellent credentials in covering this region,” she told Guardian Australia. “She covers complex and contested stories and she and the ABC expect her reporting to be closely scrutinised. Any genuine complaints about her work would be dealt with through the usual editorial processes.”

The Australian Jewish News has accused McNeill of having a “record of political activism in support of the Palestinian side of this conflict”.



McNeill recently spoke about the personal toll of the post for the Correspondents Report: “In the space of one day I go from being worried about my family getting caught up in violence in Jerusalem by a Palestinian attacker, to then crossing over to the West Bank to face Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets, tear gas and even live rounds as I film angry young Palestinians protesting [against] the Israeli occupation and the illegal Israeli settlements being built on their land.



“I pause when my kids ask to go the park and wonder if the one near us is a possible target. I then hear the roar of Israeli airforce jets practising in the air over my house and I worry about Palestinian friends in Gaza and the hundreds of people I’ve met there over the years who’ve experienced the horror of air strikes and bombings by the Israeli air force.”



Scott also faced questions about changes to regional programming and the Zaky Mallah incident on Q&A.



Abetz also asked Scott why the anti-marriage equality lobby had not been given the same airtime as the marriage equality advocates Rodney Croome and Christine Forster.

In August the ABC’s Media Watch program claimed “the ABC has not interviewed Sophie York from the Marriage Alliance even once — despite 16 interviews with Forster and Croome”.



“I can assure you that on this matter a plurality of views and perspectives have been aired across a range of ABC programs,” Scott said.

