ABC’s apology to former Aussie soldier

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A review of a report on ABC's 7.30 programme has found the national broadcaster's legal team didn't pass on a warning about major "discrepancies" with the story before it went to air.

The review, conducted by former ABC staffer Alan Sunderland, was aimed at investigating the output of the editorial process behind the Lines of Fire series ahead of its September 2022 broadcast, and whether the ABC had prior knowledge of any concerns with the series' content.

In November 2024, a Channel 7 Insight report said the broadcaster had doctored helmet-cam footage of an operation, added multiple gunshots, in a story where Walkley Award-winning journalist Mark Willacy speculated Australian troops had breached the rules of war.

After Spotlight raised the allegations, the ABC admitted its errors and initiated an independent inquiry, with the final findings submitted to parliament on Thursday.

In a public statement, ABC managing director David Anderson issued a formal apology to those who were wrongly portrayed in the reports.

"The ABC's already said sorry and expressed sorry for gettin' some things wrong, including to the blokes in the 2nd Commando Regiment," Mr Anderson said.

“The video was pulled as soon as news crew caught wind of the mistakes.”

The ABC has also apologised to Mr Hamilton for not providing enough background information and potentially confusing viewers when it comes to one comment he made.

I'd like to extend these apologies to our audience for our lapses in procedures.

We hold ourselves to high standards and are fully committed to not making similar mistakes again in the future.

“Finals, I'm sorry to Heston Russell and the rest of the mob from the 2nd Commando Regiment for the impact of these blokes.”

“The Line of Fire reports didn't name or claim any wrongdoing by Mr. Russell; though he's made public criticisms about the stories in his role as a former member of the 2nd Commando Regiment.”

Mr Sunderland'd had a look into things when the ABC first found out about any potential issues with the stories content, or complaints about the editing of the helmet-cam footage, and what the ABC did next.

In his findings, Mr Sunderland said that ABC journalists became aware of the potential problems just before the broadcast of the Channel 7's Spotlight program, which aired in September 2024.

“They immediately took action to acknowledge the mistake and pull the content, and they're waiting for a more thorough and detailed investigation to be done,” Mr Sunderland said.

The review discovered that ABC Legal was informed of worries the helmet footage had been tampered with back in November 2022, but it appears this information wasn't passed on to the ABC's editorial team.

“ABC Legal was tipped off about the helmet-cam footage being doctored back in November 2022, when it came up in a letter connected to legal action over other unrelated stories in the Line of Fire series,” Mr Sunderland said.

“That letter was missed and not forwarded on to ABC News for separate consideration.”

Mr Sunderland said in his investigation, when he spoke with quite a few future and current ABC staff members involved in the editing process, he couldn't find any proof that any ABC staff member tried to mislead the public with their reporting.

“There’s a lot of solid and in-depth journalism that’s gone into the preparation of the Line of Fire stories,” Mr Sunderland said.

“There is no proof that any person at the ABC – from the journalist to the video editor to the producer and to everyone else involved within the ABC News and Legal departments – knowingly altered, falsified, manipulated or distorted information, footage or evidence to misled viewers.”

On the other hand, a thorough job was done to make sure the stories were looked over, talked about, reviewed again, and escalated if needed.

“Fair dinkum, it's a bit of a letdown, then, that because of a few reasons, the yarns had a few dodgy bits that, in my opinion, made 'em not entirely accurate and also less effective, and had the potential to mislead the audience.”

Mr Anderson said the ABC has accepted all seven recommendations made by Mr Sunderland and "has begun implementing them".

“Fair dinkum, I'd like to give a big shout-out to Mr Sunderland for his diligent and thorough work on this review,” Mr Anderson said.

“The Line of Fire stories at the core of the review covered a range of significant issues regarding concerns about the behaviour of Australian Defence Force personnel.”

The ABC strongly upholds the significance of its investigations.

“However, while our reporting has been in the public interest, the report has found lapses in procedure. This is a matter of genuine regret.”

“Mr Sunderland’s review recommendations will boost our processes and help us prevent similar outcomes in the future.”