Anti-Semitism
Racism
The Ethnic Media
and
The Australian Press Council
A special report of
The B’nai B’rith
Anti-Defamation Commission
99 Hotham Street, Balaclava, Victoria 3183
Index
The Australian Press Council (APC) is the Australian media’s recognised self-regulatory authority. The APC hears complaints against the press from members of the public and communal organisations.
Regarding cases of alleged racism, especially in the ethnic press, the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (BBADC) believes the APC has failed to adequately address this issue.
The APC's approach indicates a lack of understanding and sensitivity to the issues thrown-up by attacks of a racist nature. A quite different approach is necessary in order for the APC to effectively handle complaints about racist articles and reports.
Over 40 non-English language newspapers in almost thirty languages are published in Australia. These newspapers are a primary source of information for ethnic minorities and expatriate communities on matters of religious, ethnic and national concern.
These concerns are often charged and rouse passions, and in a number of cases documented by the BBADC, ethnic newspapers have used inciteful and inflammatory language. In doing so they have espoused long-standing anti-Semitic myths which are designed to reinforce negative stereotypes. This has most frequently been manifested by reference to claims of a Jewish campaign for world domination achieved as a result of excessive Jewish power internationally.
To site some recent examples:
El Telegraph, a Sydney based Arabic paper, cited the notorious Tsarist forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to say that Jews argue:
"…Terror must always remain in order to lead to the desired blind surrender and all the people will submit to the Jews and we will achieve our Global Order..." (29/4/96).
Novosti, a Serbian newspaper, published an article, which stated:
"…Jews planned the history 1000 years in advance (of the recent conflict in Yugoslavia).... Can we conclude from this that the Jews are destroying the Serbs? Of course not. Not all Jews, only the American Jews who control the USA, Congress and the whole world" (18/9/95).
Vilna Dumka, a Ukrainian-language weekly, asked:
"Hasn’t the time come to stop that old everlasting hostility of the Jews against other nations? The hostility that has resulted in the elimination by the Jews of millions of innocent victims during the famine in USSR…" (13 February 1994).
Tygodnik Polski, the Polish Weekly wrote:
"The Hollywood empire was, and is, and will go on being, a real Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel)...the press, radio and TV are all the empire of the ‘chosen people’...." (27 April 1996).
Magyar Elet, Hungarian Life, wrote:
"Our life (ie in Hungary), since WW2, has been channelled, from outside, according to a very specific scenario. Close to the end of the Millennium, it is now apparent that a narrow financial, liberal international group is the one which is hiding in the background" (14 March 1996)
and
"The cosmopolitan group which owns culture, the media and finance, and which suddenly became liberal...." (25 July 1996)
It has been the portrayal of Jews in this deceitful, sinister and untrustworthy vein and characterisation, which has led to the death of millions of innocent Jews throughout the ages.
APC Principle 7 regulates against racism, providing:
Publications should not place any gratuitous emphasis on the race, religion, nationality, colour, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, illness, or age of an individual or group. Nevertheless, where it is relevant and in the public interest, publications may report and express opinions in these areas."
However, the BBADC believes that the APC has failed to implement Principle 7, and has thereby denied the wider community a form of redress against racist rhetoric.
This was demonstrated in Press Council adjudication No. 902 regarding the article "That You Hate Me So", by Waldemar Lysiak published in Melbourne’s Tygodnik Polski (Polish Weekly). The article was referred to the Press Council by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission.
The Press Council found the article to be of the type "which stirs ethnic and racial prejudice" and was "outrageous in much, if not all, of what it had to say". However, the Press Council did not uphold the complaint because "it was a by-lined article of opinion which was answered by an article of apparent authority. Additionally, the complaint has been offered adequate space to reply.
The reasoning of these decisions highlights two major areas of concern in the APC’s decision making process.
(i) Racism is legitimate: To recognise any by-lined opinion as legitimate opens the way for a racial free for all in the media. It is important to distinguish between factual opinion and racist opinion (see below). This is not a matter of freedom of speech and historic debate, but provides racists with the opportunity to peddle often exposed 'historical' misinformation as a smokescreen for advocating racist views
(ii) Right of Reply: Debating racism: The Press Council based its decision on the fact that Tygodnik Polski published an article in response and that the Anti-Defamation Commission was also offered a right of reply.
In practical terms this means that an editor can publish material which is outrageous and which can stir ethnic and racial prejudice, as the Press Council found with the Tygodnik Polski article, and all the editor has to do is offer and publish a right of reply and he is exempt from responsibility.
If the APC contends that an editor does not need to retract or apologise for his remarks, editors will be free to publish hateful and inciteful material.
The overall effect of this is that an editor can cause irreparable damage to relations between ethnic groups, ultimately importing conflicts of a religious and national nature, both ancient and modern, into Australia.
The implications for this extends way beyond the Jewish community, to other religious and ethnic groups in Australia and expatriates of countries involved in conflicts overseas, such as:
Indeed, attacks on other ethnic groups have been made in the ethnic press, for example:
(i) Aborigines: The following article Stone Age is Sanctioned published by Tygodnik Polski stated:
"the possibility cannot be excluded that, in the near future, state judges will sentence Aborigines to, say, receive 15 strokes with a club, and 3 stabs with a spear.... There is no doubt that Aborigines are a tumour on the arse of Australia. A malignant incurable tumour which cannot be cut out....Now, in an age of scruples, we act like cretins, using every possible means to pamper Aborigines....We will suffer from this tumour as long as...doctors pretend that they believe in black idols, and watch their feet to ensure that they aren’t desecrating ‘sacred land’; as long as they tolerate a situation in which the Aboriginal is sometimes subject to the law of the land (eg when he gets the dough); another time he is outside the law (eg when he is allowed to function as copper, judge and hangman in the same person)....We will carry this tumour into the 21st century..." (29/7/95 No. 27).
(ii) Asians: Magyar Elet, Hungarian Life, published an article, which stated:
"A small, puny, creol-skinned, slant-eyed and sneaky-looking (person) can be as much American as an Australian. However, it cannot be expected of him/her to be patriot, merely on the assumption that he/she is living here or is sponging here" (4 July 1996).
(iii) Non-ethnic groups: In 1994 a NSW regional paper published a bylined article about the Gay community in Sydney. The author referred to Sydney as the "poof" capital of the world, claiming that AIDS was "Gods myxo" and hoped that it could work "without hurting too many innocent victims" and would "correct people’s mind-set and morals so we can get on with returning this country to its former glory". The APC (adjudication No. 723) rejected the complaint because it was a bylined article and the complainant was offered a right of reply.
These examples demonstrate that many ethnic and minority groups have been, and may be, vilified. This APC's current approach to these cases, however, indicates that that the APC do not readily appreciate the effect vilification has on the person against whom such bigotry, racism and vilification is directed.
Provision exists within current APC Principles to regulate and respond to racism in the ethnic press. The problem is that these provisions have not been enforced, even, as in adjudication No. 902, where the APC found the article to be "outrageous". One is left wondering what would be necessary for the APC to uphold a complaint alleging racism.
The APC has demonstrated that it lacks the understanding required to address the issue of racism which is made more complex by its historic, religious and ethnic dimension. This may in part be explained by two reasons:
(i) Racism in the ethnic press is often shrouded in a historical context, which the APC does not - and cannot reasonably be expected - to understand.
(ii) The meaning of matters written in their native tongue is not conveyed through translation. However, in their historic context they are often metaphors with derogatory meaning.
The BBADC therefore recommends:
(i) That this problem can be mitigated by the APC employing as a matter of urgency the skills of those people who are aware of cultural and historical contexts surrounding different ethnic groups.
Such a group could serve as an advisory Board to the APC, which could consider complaints with, informed reports from this body.
(ii) The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission rejects the APC approach that a right of reply is sufficient redress. This is because replying to racism would in fact imply entering into an apparently legitimate debate on matters, which clearly involve deliberate defamation and racism. The onus should be on the perpetrator of this racism to apologise, not its victim to defend the defamation.
Instead, the APC should invoke Principle 2 which provides:
"A newspaper should make amends for publishing information that is found to be harmfully inaccurate by printing, promptly and with appropriate prominence, such retraction, correction, explanation or apology as will neutralise the damage so far possible."
(iii) APC Principle 5 currently states:
"A publication is justified in strongly advocating its own views on controversial topics provided that it treats its readers fairly by:
making facts and opinion clearly distinguishable;
not misrepresenting or suppressing relevant acts;
not distorting the facts in text, headlines, pictures, billboards or posters;
disclosing any commercial or other interest which might be construed as influencing the publication’s presentation of news or opinion.
This principle can be explicitly expanded to exclude racial vilification, for example by saying:
"not vilifying and inciting against religious and ethnic minorities".
(iv) The APC must distinguish between genuine and racist opinion:
(a) Factual Opinion: This is opinion based on fact, which is a genuine component in historic and contemporary debate. These opinions can be responded to with alternative factual information; and
(b) Racist opinion: This opinion is based on racist characterisations which has no place in genuine debate. These views, based on hateful racist stereotypes, cannot be refuted because they are not based on fact.
In relation to these proposals, the BBADC is happy to join an APC working committee in an endeavour to develop an effective approach to cases of racism.
The APC’s approach to cases of racism is important for all those concerned about racial harmony in Australia. This current approach has led to absurd situations, such as the APC refusing to censure the claim that Hitler and other leading Nazis were Jewish (adjudication No. 902)!
Racist attacks in Australian are on the rise. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission has registered a marked rise in racist incidents, doubling in the first period of 1997 compared with the period in 1996. Anti-Semitic incidents increased by a quarter in the last quarter of 1996.
If racism is to be contained and redressed in the ethnic, and indeed mainstream media, it is imperative that an effective monitoring body exists to perform this function. The APC is supposed to be that body.
It is fully recognised that the Press Council’s powers are voluntary not statutory. This serves to add to the onus on the APC to implement its own principles fully. Continued failure to do so will be a major failure in duty and could contribute to the rise of inter-ethnic, and more broadly racial, tensions in Australia. Unless and until the APC reviews and revises its approach to cases of alleged racism, it will have failed in its duty to provide a forum for public complaints about racism in newspapers in Australia.
Copyright (1997)
B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission
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