Q&A Host Tony Jones Defends ABC For Allowing Terror Sympathiser Zaky Mallah On Show
Tony Jones said that ABC was not aware of Zaky Mallah’s tweet about two female journalists. Otherwise, the news channel would not have allowed the former terrorism suspect to to join the live studio audience on the TV show, Q&A.
The Q&A host called Mallah’s tweet “misogynist” and “very offensive.” On the Monday night episode, he addressed some of the criticism about allowing Mallah to be a part of the show last week. Mallah was convicted of threatening to kill ASIO officers.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott ordered an inquiry into the television show. He said that the program had betrayed Australia. Abbott said that it was a further mistake to re-broadcast the show. According to the Australian PM, “heads should roll” over the inclusion of Mallah in the program, ABC earlier reported.
Jones said that ABC had acknowledged the “error” in having Mallah live in the studio. He said that it was an unusual situation as “clearly one of the biggest and most controversial issues of the past week has been about events that occurred on our own program.” “The ABC itself has acknowledged that an error was made in having Mr. Zaky Mallah live in the studio and as we go to air tonight there is more than one inquiry under way,” The Guardian quoted him.
Other media networks have blasted ABC for including Mallah in the show. Now, Jones’ statement defending the new network infuriated a few. The Australian reported that the Jones’ statement had exposed ABC’s “delinquency, irresponsibility and bias.” “Sex threat, bad; death threat, okay,” The Australian wrote as it referred to ABC’s “split personality.”
The Australian said that, while ABC might not have been aware of Mallah’s misogynist tweet, it was definitely aware that he was a terror suspect. While ABC claims to be a part of socio-political attempts against extremism, violence and sexism, it creates a contradiction in the company by allowing people like Mallah who promote extremism, the news website reported.
Parliamentary Secretary Steven Ciobo said that Jones’ explanation was “very strange.” Ciobo, who responded to Mallah’s question on the show last week, wondered why the news network had not rejected Mallah’s participation on the show on the basis of his tweets promoting extremism.
Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au
