Broadcaster insists outside pressure did not affect decision despite concerted criticisms of the piece by the government

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Malcolm Turnbull, his communications minister and the treasurer all wrote to Michelle Guthrie to complain about coverage of corporate tax policy by Emma Alberici before the ABC removed the contentious piece on Thursday.



The letter from the communications minister, Mitch Fifield, is quoted in the Weekend Australian, which also reports the prime minister and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, wrote to the ABC boss.



“This coverage contains multiple factual errors and misrepresentations in breach of the ABC’s editorial standards,” Fifield said. “It is neither fair, balanced, accurate nor impartial. It fails to present a balance of views on the corporate tax policy.”



The stories “display a lack of understanding about the tax system and … failed to accurately present the facts or range of views on this issue with appropriate ­balance”, he said.



'Lot of disquiet': senior ABC staff angry over return of cabinet files Read more

On Saturday a spokeswoman for Fifield told Guardian Australia the minister had written to Guthrie on Wednesday after the articles appeared online.



On Friday ABC News said it had amended Alberici’s news story and removed her analysis piece about the government’s proposed corporate tax cuts because the pieces did not meet ABC editorial standards.



However, the ABC insists the changes were made as a result of an internal editorial review that began at 7am on Wednesday – the day of publication – and not because of any pressure from outside the organisation.



The Weekend Australian also claimed the ABC received complaints about Alberici retweeting a tweet by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, promoting her story.



Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) Turnbull is in parliament attacking the ABC for telling the truth about his $65 billion handout for multinationals. Here’s the full story. https://t.co/IEY3ZN8GAD

“Is this appropriate for a ‘fair and balanced’ ABC journalist?” the unnamed complaint read.



The ABC’s director of editorial policy, Alan Sunderland, used Twitter to defend Alberici as a “great journo” and to say the difference between analysis and opinion in the editorial policies was very nuanced.



Alan Sunderland (@asunderland) I won’t use Twitter to provide a detailed analysis of anyone’s reporting, other than to say that Uhlmann, Ross, Alberici and many others are all great journos. But none of us are perfect or beyond criticism, and we all have to fit into the high editorial standards of the ABC.

Turnbull and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, criticised the coverage during question time on Wednesday.



“We saw that [the opposition] were busily retweeting the article – one of the most confused and poorly researched articles I’ve seen on this topic on the ABC’s website,” Turnbull said. “The ABC has the same understanding of the commercial world as does the opposition.”

The ABC added a note to the news story on Friday, saying it had been updated to add further information and context, and the analysis piece had been removed for review.



“On 14 February 2018 ABC News Online published two stories on corporate tax rates – a news story examining why some Australian companies do not pay corporate tax and an analysis of proposed changes to company tax rates,” a spokeswoman said.



“The analysis piece did not accord with our editorial standards for analysis content and has been removed for further review.”



The spokeswoman added: “Complaints about the stories have been referred to the independent complaints handling unit, audience and consumer affairs, which will examine the editorial issues that have been raised.



“Any suggestion the ABC is responding to outside pressure over these stories is incorrect. They have been subject to the normal ABC editorial processes. The internal review of the stories was begun before any complaints were received by ABC News.”



Users on social media noticed the analysis piece had disappeared on Thursday evening, but the ABC offered no explanation until late on Friday.



Reds Under the Beds (@Nettythe1st) How do you feel @albericie having your excellent investigative journalism on Company Tax Cuts DELETED from the @abcnews website? #auspol #abc730 #thedrum pic.twitter.com/WI3oS2q2aS

You can still read the analysis article here.

