Australia’s mainstream media continues to push the unfounded October 7 narrative of “babies beheaded” and “mass rapes” which gave rise to Israel’s extreme “collective punishment” in Gaza. Michael West reports.

As recently as last week, in the wake of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Australia’s media persisted with its narrative of “babies beheaded” and “mass rapes”. 

In a story in Rupert Murdoch’s Herald Sun by former Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg 5 days ago, the claims were repeated again despite a lack of evidence, in fact despite the claims being debunked by a number of independent sources and even 

Despite the lack of evidence for these claims, and despite the media’s refusal to resile from its claims, Australia’s media regulators, The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) and the Australian Press Council, have ducked questions as to their responsibility to ensure truthful reporting.

ACMA responded to questions from MWM by saying, “Concerns about press coverage should be raised with the Australian Press Council”. The Press Council, an organ of industry self-regulation, has simply refused to respond.

Israel’s atrocity propaganda has been daily relied upon in global media to justify the brutality of Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, conduct which resulted in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu facing a “plausible case for genocide” in the International Court of Justice.

Although the 40 babies beheaded claims have been roundly debunked in investigations by independent media, the mass rapes claims which persist rely on ‘circumstantial evidence’ from Israeli sources and not forensic evidence or any first hand accounts by victims.

Although ACMA, the government media regulator denied that correcting the record in this instance was its responsibility, it does have a statutory role in compliance and enforcement.

Indeed, although not very active in ensuring truthful reporting by the media, it has taken steps in the past to enforce standards, notably in December 2022, when it announced the results of its inquiry into the ABC’s Four Corners claiming breaches of impartiality standards for broadcasting its “Fox and the Big Lie” investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.

When we asked if ACMA had “investigated the false claims and breaches of impartiality regarding the Australian media’s coverage of events in Gaza since October 7 last year – in particular, the claims of the News Corp and Nine Entertainment press which have mimicked the discredited claims of the government of Israel,” ACMA suggested we contact the Press Council as this was not ACMA’s remit.

“The ACMA’s statutory remit concerns the compliance of TV and radio broadcasters with licence conditions of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) and rules in broadcasting industry codes of practice.

Concerns about press coverage should be raised with the Australian Press Council, which has responsibility for responding to complaints about published material other than advertisements in Australian newspapers, magazines and digital sites.

Under the broadcasting co-regulatory system, complainants are directed to the broadcaster in the first instance. If a complainant does not receive a response from the broadcaster within 60 days or is not satisfied with the response they do receive, they may refer their complaint to the ACMA for consideration.

The ACMA has received complaints relating to broadcasts about the Israel/Gaza conflict where the complainant was not satisfied with the broadcaster’s response. The complaints were assessed against the relevant rules in the industry codes of practice, and in relation to complaints considered to date no further action has been taken.”

ACMA suggested we contact the Australian Press Council, which we did by putting questions to Executive Director Yvette Lamont (questions below), but there was no response.

While babies beheaded, babies in ovens, a baby on the clothesline and other myths from October 7 have been roundly debunked as without evidence, the claims of mass rapes by Hamas militants were partially supported by “circumstantial evidence” from a UN investigation based on testimony by Israeli sources.

“However, they did hold 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and conducted interviews with 34 people, including survivors and witnesses of that day’s attacks, released captives, and health providers.

“While circumstantial, she said it could be “indicative of some forms of sexual violence.”

While nobody disputes that Hamas committed war crimes on October 7, the other thing in dispute is the number of Israelis killed by the insurgents vis-a-vis those killed by Israeli troops acting under the Hannibal Directive.

A reported 255 Israelis were captured on October 7, including soldiers and civilians. Since then, 154 of them have been released, mostly by Hamas in November’s prisoner exchange. The estimate of Palestinians killed by Israel’s response now stands at 43,000, with some estimates (including estimates by scientific journal The Lancet) putting the numbers at 186,000.

According to reports, the IDF deployed 28 Apache helicopters to the Gaza border to fire on vehicles fleeing the scene with hostages. There has been no independent investigation by authorities of the events of October 7. The accepted number of Israelis killed by Hamas that day stands at 1,200, but it is not known how many were killed by the IDF.

https://michaelwest.com.au/acma-press-council-duck-media-regulation-on-false-october-7-israel-claims/

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