Australia: bipartisan support for media instigator of Cronulla race riot

Prominent radio talk-back host Alan Jones was at the centre of the ruling released on April 10. The ACMA formally found that his comments had breached 2GB’s radio licence and the Commercial Radio Codes of Practice (2004) on three separate occasions in the week leading up to the racialist riot in Cronulla on December 11, 2005.

Specifically, Jones’s program contained material “likely to incite, encourage or present for its own sake violence and brutality,” prohibited under clause 1.3 (a) of the radio code, and material “likely to incite or perpetuate hatred against or vilify” those of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern background on the basis of their “ethnicity” prohibited under clause 1.3 (e).

Far from supporting the ACMA and criticising Jones’s inflammatory remarks, Prime Minister John Howard and Labor Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd both immediately rushed to Jones’s defence.

The prime minister endorsed Jones as an “outstanding broadcaster” and not someone who “encourages prejudice in the Australian community, not for one moment.” Rather, “he is a person who articulates what a lot of people think,” Howard said. Labor leader Rudd followed suit. Asked if he would reconsider appearing on Jones’s program in future, he told ABC radio, “there’s nothing I’ve read at this stage that would cause me not to go on.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/apr2007/acma-a18.shtml