ABC News Director Justin Stevens says an increasingly toxic media environment is undermining public perception of journalism

The ABC’s news director warned that the media must perform “at the highest level of their ability” to prevent a flood of misinformation. He also criticised infighting in the media, which could undermine “the public perception of all news”.

Speaking at the Melbourne Press Club, Justin Stevens said there was a “crisis of media confidence” in Australia and the rest of the world.

He noted that the ABC remains the most trusted media organisation in the country, according to research by Roy Morgan, but that the public broadcaster “can never take that for granted”.

“We must fiercely protect that trust and work every day to ensure we are worthy of it,” Stevens said.

Stevens, who was executive producer of the ABC program 7.30 before becoming news director, also pointed to the rise of “misinformation and disinformation” on social media and the deprioritization of legitimate news sources as a growing obstacle to journalism.

He used the example of Canadian media being removed from Meta platforms.

“If that happened here, the third of Australians who use Facebook for news, the 16 per cent who use Instagram, the 10 per cent who use Facebook Messenger and the 9 per cent who use WhatsApp would be left without ABC content,” Stevens said.

“The rise of generative AI technology will lead to an increase in deepfakes and malicious actors, further eroding trust.

A ‘toxic media environment’ undermines perceptions of news

According to Stevens, political polarization also leads to problems with trust in the news.

The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer found that almost half of Australians believe the country is more divided today than it used to be.

Major divisive forces included “the rich and powerful,” hostile foreign governments, and journalists.

Meanwhile, media companies are attacking each other in an “increasingly toxic media environment,” further contributing to the “corrosive public perception of all news and journalism,” Stevens noted.

“We expect the ABC to be subject to strict and thorough scrutiny and I will not shy away from doing so if necessary.

“But sometimes what is called ‘scrutiny’ is in reality an attack driven by an agenda, motivated by ideological, personal or commercial interests, often targeting specific journalists with the aim of damaging their reputation.

“This trend on social media and in some media outlets – and let’s be honest and call it what it often is: bullying – is about more than just the ABCs.

“Spurious attacks on some journalists have the potential to undermine the reputation of all journalists, fueling a crisis of public confidence.”

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Stevens agreed that “the ABC needs to be scrutinised and held to account”, but said he drew the line at “unfair attacks on ABC journalists”, who he said were often labelled as critical.

He said there was a disproportionate amount of bullying against women, First Nations and culturally diverse journalists.

He said that “mistakes are definitely made” at the ABC and that the national broadcaster “needs to admit when we can do better”.

“Just last week we were alerted by Channel Seven to an error in a video clip in an online story from two years ago. Preliminary inspection suggests some of the audio may have been incorrectly edited,” Stevens said.

Channel Seven’s Spotlight program accused the ABC of adding the sound of five extra bullets to a video clip of Australian troops firing from a helicopter in Afghanistan during a report on former commando Heston Russell.

In a statement to Spotlight, the ABC said: “We have removed the online video in which an error was identified based on a preliminary inspection of the audio.

“The ABC wants more information about how this could have happened.”

Last year, Mr Russell was awarded $390,000 in damages in his defamation case against the ABC after a judge rejected the broadcaster’s defence on public interest grounds.

“We have removed the video and are still investigating how this happened. Once we have all the facts we will determine the appropriate response,” Stevens told the Melbourne Press Club.

“Until we have clarity on how it happened, I will not make any further statements about it, so as not to postpone the matter.”

The highest priority is ‘significant’ stories

Stevens also touched on ABC’s digital news reach, which surpassed its broadcast reach for the first time in the past year.

“When we talk about digital, we’re really talking about delivering quality journalism to the public in the way they want it,” he said.

Stevens’ comments come after ABC chairman Kim Williams criticised the posting of the story on the ABC News website in a conversation with colleagues at Radio National, which was subsequently leaked to other media outlets.

Williams told the Guardian that the publication of the Nine Papers story “took me by surprise” and that it was “a lesson learned, but I stand by what I said”.

Stevens said the ABC’s primary focus is on helping viewers “find news that is meaningful to them”, prioritising “stories that matter”.

“We believe there is a place for all kinds of news, hard and soft, current and topical, valuable and ephemeral. But the ABC chooses to deliver news of local, national and international significance, regardless of the platform,” he said.