Media Release
ABC misreports Swedish TV mulesing program
12 March 2008
ABC Radio has inaccurately reported the contents of a Swedish TV program to the Australian audience.
A story run on ABC Radio Country Hour (March 6, 2008) contained major inaccuracies about bribery, which stem from taking material out of context.
ABC Radio Country Hour said “…the program … shows footage of a lobbyist hired by the Australian Sheep and Wool Industry Taskforce, offering a free trip to a Swedish participant if she agreed to not appear in the documentary.”
The truth – from the actual transcript of the Swedish TV program put to air on February 24, 2008 – is that Kevin Craig, the Taskforce representative, noted there was no point coming to Australia to look at mulesing and live export if the program had already been broadcast.
Ian McLachlan, AWI's Chairman, said "Clearly it would've been a bribe if Craig had offered a free trip in return for not appearing in the show; such a corrupt offer simply was never made or contemplated."
This was an offer to the activist to provide her with an opportunity to see for herself, the reality of what happens in Australia, and therefore would be fully informed of the situation, before she appeared on TV to discuss the matter.
It is not a bribe, it does not ‘offer a free trip for silence’ as claimed by the ABC.
Moreover, this part of the conversation was actually about the live sheep trade. The animal rights activist refers to live export ships in her answer and this was not reported by the ABC.
The ABC refuses to provide its background information.
The false allegations made by the ABC have been incredibly damaging to the Australian wool industry. The ABC must review its material against the transcript (attached), and make an apology to its Australian audiences for taking material out of context and mis-informing the public.
Attachment
An unaltered extract from a transcript from an audio recording made legally by Kevin Craig, Australian sheep and Wool Taskforce ( UK representative ) at Malmo, Sweden on 7th February 2008.
1. Katarina
And then you talked about you said something about a trip too.
2. Kevin
Well I was basically saying that if
3. Katarina
That would be expensive
4. Kevin
Well you won’t pay for it - it would be paid for and it would be free for you to do it in the way that you want, it’s not controlled, you are not told where to go so this is not a public relations project, but we are not afraid for people to come down and see what happens. And that offer has been approved from Australia, the Australian government know that we have made that offer.
5. Katarina
May I please ask something about the offer?
6. Kevin
Yes
7. Katarina
If I could join on one of those ships, and be able to take photos of the animals every day, and every animal that dies we could write down that it died and get the figures and then follow when they unload them
8. Kevin
I will certainly make that request tonight, in good faith it is possible that will be grated. Just because of the way it works, there is no way they will let that happen if you’ve already gone on TV4, just because people will say “this isn’t fair, we offered her a chance to come and do this, she’s already made it more difficult for us.” So I’m just telling you that in good faith, but I will make that request tonight, and I will have an answer back to you very quickly. So you want to go on a vessel taking animals from Australian to the middle east.
9. Katarina
Actually, I would like to start on a farm, to count every hour, every single procedure done to the sheep, and also if it could be done that we could get some blood samples, look at the stress levels of the sheep and so on when they are gathered together sheep get very stressed.
10. Kevin
Yes yes. A lot of this is already being done but yes
Released by:
David Dawson, AWI Corporate Affairs – 0428 782 266