But now let’s come back closer to home to Adani, whose controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin gets ever closer to construction, despite this scathing piece in The Sydney Morning Herald by Bloomberg columnist David Fickling:

The numbers on Adani simply don't add up Comparable projects like Glencore's Wandoan have been mothballed for years. - The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May, 2019

Fickling’s op-ed 10 days ago argued that the Adani mine may never be built — even if it does get final approval — because it’s currently much cheaper to buy coal than dig it out of a brand-new coal mine.

And over at ABC Radio, Saturday AM thought that was worth a story.

But after being worked on by Isobel Roe, a young award-winning journalist in Brisbane, it never made it to air.

So, why was that? Well, Media Watch can reveal that Adani complained to the ABC in advance. And the story was spiked.

So how did this all unfold?

Bloomberg has confirmed to Media Watch that David Fickling was interviewed by the ABC on the afternoon of Friday, 24th of May.

And just over an hour later, at 4.20pm, Adani say Roe contacted them for comment.

And not long after that, at 5.50pm, the producer of Saturday AM, Thomas Oriti, told ABC staff he was killing the story.

Now, newsrooms at the ABC are open plan and not very private and four witnesses tell Media Watch that Oriti made it clear Adani had complained.

Indeed, one claims he told Roe:

‘Sorry. It’s nothing to do with you, but we’re not going to be able to run this’. - Phone interview, ABC staffer, 31 May, 2019

While another claims he said:

‘It’s not my decision, it’s come from on high.’ - Phone interview, ABC staffer, 31 May, 2019

The ABC denies this and maintains his decision was taken entirely on editorial merit, because the story didn’t stack up.

So what can we be sure of?

Well, there’s no doubt Adani did complain, both to the reporter when she rang and, shortly after, to her bosses. A company spokesperson told us:

… we raised concerns with ABC management when approached to comment on a story that contained inaccuracies and was potentially biased ... - Email, Adani spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

Adani says it told the reporter she should talk to an analyst more friendly to the mining sector.

And when she asked them to suggest someone, Adani’s PR team cracked it and went over her head to ABC management:

Adani complained that it was not reasonable that the onus for ensuring that ABC news coverage was fair and balanced should fall back onto the company and not onto the ABC’s well-resourced newsrooms. - Email, Adani spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

A key feature of Adani’s complaint was that the ABC had not given it enough time to respond.

But in fact by Friday afternoon Fickling’s work had been up for more than 36 hours. And Adani was able to send a statement to the ABC almost immediately.

So, who at the ABC dealt with the company’s complaint?

We’re told Adani went straight to the top — ABC News boss Gaven Morris — who we understand is the person they normally contact.

So to clarify what happened, we asked Morris a series of questions, which included:

Did Adani contact you last Friday afternoon to complain about the story? What was the nature of the complaint, and how did you respond? Why was the story pulled, given that it had been commissioned for Saturday AM only hours beforehand? Was the decision to pull the story taken after Adani’s complaint? Why was this complaint handled personally by you? - Email, Media Watch to Gaven Morris, 31 May, 2019

We did not get a response from Gaven Morris or answers to most of those questions.

Instead, an ABC spokesperson told us:

There was no complaint. - Email, ABC spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

Which is remarkable, because Adani says there was. The ABC statement then continues:

The only communication we received from Adani was a request for more time to respond to our questions. In order to provide parties with a fair opportunity to respond and given the strength of the other stories in the mix for Saturday AM, the decision was taken at an editorial level to not proceed with the story. - Email, ABC spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

But that is certainly not how ABC newsroom staff who saw these events unfold would characterise what happened.

Several more we talked to are also nervous about the influence the miner has on the broadcaster.

As the ABC itself reported in February, Adani and its advisers believe in going hard at their critics:

ROS CHILDS: Lawyers for the mining company Adani proposed waging war on opponents of its controversial Queensland mine by using the legal system to pressure governments and silence critics. JOSH ROBERTSON: … it’s in this document which is called ‘Taking The Gloves Off’. Some of the strategies include, as you mentioned, using the legal system to pressure government decision-makers, using social media as a tool against those same decision-makers looking for evidence of bias … - ABC News Channel, 19 February, 2019

One page in that successful pitch for Adani’s legal business by AJ & Co was headed “TRAINED ATTACK DOG”. It declared:

“Like a well-trained police dog, our litigations know when to sit and shake, and when it is time to bite," … - ABC News, 19 February, 2019

And bite they have. Especially at journalists pursuing stories about the Carmichael mine.

As The Guardian reported only last Friday:

… the Indian mining giant Adani has made several requests for information about ABC journalists covering their projects. … Reporters Mark Willacy and Michael Slezak were asked for documents relating to news reports on allegations Adani was illegally drilling bore holes. These requests were made by AJ & Co … - The Guardian, 31 May, 2019

Among the documents sought by Adani under Freedom of Information laws were Mark Willacy’s expenses and mobile phone records, presumably to see who he’d been talking to.

They have now been handed over to Adani by the ABC, but heavily redacted, as you can see, to protect the reporter’s privacy and sources.

Meanwhile, the company freely admits it is a regular complainer. A spokesperson told Media Watch:

Adani Mining has made a number of complaints to the ABC over the last 12 months regarding inaccurate and biased reporting. - Email, Adani spokesperson, 31 May, 2019

And we have seen several of them, addressed to news boss Gaven Morris, taking ABC reporters to task on stories about Adani’s environmental management plans, secrecy over Great Barrier Reef pollution risks, and Adani bankrolling local government staff overseeing matters relating to the project.

Those complaints have all gone through the ABC’s arm’s-length review process. And not one has been upheld, although in a couple of cases the ABC agreed to add more information.

But Adani will no doubt keep trying, and of course has every right to do so.

However, its latest success raises real concern. Because it involved allegations of inaccuracy and potential bias in a report that had not gone to air and that Adani had not even heard. Yet for whatever reason it led to the story from a young award-winning reporter being pulled.

And that sends a terrible message to ABC journalists trying to do their job and also to ABC viewers who trust the ABC to give frank and fearless coverage of matters of public importance.

UPDATE

ABC Managing Director David Anderson has made a statement in response to this story. You can read that full statement here.