"At times, free speech principles mean giving platforms to those with whom we fundamentally disagree," Mr Scott said in a speech in Melbourne on Thursday night. ABC managing director Mark Scott has given a passionate defence of the ABC. Credit:Pat Scala "Media organisations often give air time to the criminal and corrupt, to those who express views that run contrary to accepted public values. "You have to set the bar very high before you begin to exclude certain views or perspectives." Mr Scott directly answered a question Mr Abbott posed to the broadcaster earlier this week - "Whose side are you on?" - by saying the ABC is "clearly on the side of Australia".

"The A in ABC is for Australian," he said. "And the part we play, what we do for the side, is a vital one, central to our culture and our democracy - that of being an independent public broadcaster." Prime Minister Tony Abbott said "heads should roll" over the Q&A episode. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen It is the ABC's independence from government, Mr Scott said, "that shapes the ABC as a public broadcaster, not a state broadcaster". "I hope no one seriously wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster," he said. Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

"We know the examples. North Korea and Russia. China and Vietnam. There are many others." While acknowledging it was a mistake to allow former terror suspect Zaky Mallah to appear live on air, Mr Scott strongly defended the Q&A program. "I feel that Q&A has all the potential of being a 20-plus year franchise for the ABC, so we need to treat it with care," he said. "Like Four Corners, it's a show that should endure when all current management and production teams are long gone - an enduring part of Australian public life." The ABC will co-operate with the government's inquiry and has launched its own internal review, Mr Scott said. Mr Abbott this week described Q&A as a "lefty lynch mob" and flagged a boycott of the program by government MPs.

Mr Scott said it would have been appropriate for Q&A to air a pre-recorded question from Mr Mallah, noting numerous media outlets had given him "considerable space" over the years. But he said it was a mistake to allow him into the studio audience to ask a question. "The risks and uncertainties of having him in a live programming environment weren't adequately considered before the decision was made to accept his application to be in the studio audience," he said. On Monday's episode, Liberal MP Steve Ciobo said he would be happy to see Mr Mallah sent out of the country. Mr Mallah responded: "The Liberals have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIL because of ministers like him." Mr Scott had originally intended to speak on the importance of Australian content in his speech to the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs but changed his topic following the uproar over Monday's Q&A episode. Earlier in the day, Mr Abbott announced an "urgent" inquiry into Monday's episode, saying it was "utterly incomprehensible" the ABC had "compounded the mistake" by rebroadcasting the episode.

"Now frankly, heads should roll over this, heads should roll over this," he said. "We're not satisfied with an internal ABC inquiry because so often we've seen virtual whitewashes when that sort of thing happens. "Frankly the ABC ought to take some very strong action." The inquiry, to be conducted by the Department of Communications, will report next week. It will examine the decision-making process leading to Mr Mallah's appearance, the protocols used in regard to physical security and the decision-making process for the subsequent re-broadcast of the Q&A episode. Communications Mininister Malcolm Turnbull said: "I think it's very important that we get an understanding of the reason this judgment call was made which was clearly, as the ABC has acknowledged, so mistaken."

But Mr Turnbull said he would not join Defence Minister Kevin Andrews in boycotting the program because government MPs "need to take advantage of every platform that's available" to communicate the government's message. Follow us on Twitter