If you work at the ABC, you had better not have opinions, passions or community involvement because Aunty's new draft code of conduct says extracurricular activities could get you the sack. Phillip Adams, a columnist for The Australian, is among a number of ABC personalities who frequently make public comments, speak at rallies, write articles or take part in debates. Think Geraldine Doogue, Kerry O'Brien, Julie McCrossin, Karl Kruszelnicki, Jennifer Byrne, Wil Anderson, Norman Swan and Robyn Williams, many of whom are engaged for their expertise and public profile. The code says: "It is a condition of employment ... that employees must not make any public comment..." Making public comment includes speaking engagements, writing articles ... and conducting media interviews."
Not content with that restriction, the national broadcaster is also trying to control what employees do in their private lives. "An employee's personal behaviour outside of work must not interfere with their performance of official duties or reflect on the standing or integrity of the corporation…." Does this mean a drink-driving offence, a visit to a brothel or attendance at an anti- war protest is grounds for the sack?
Amanda Meade, The Australian, 5 August 2004

To their credit the ABC Board and management have resisted much of the recent political pressure, but this new Code of Conduct looks like a cave-in. It threatens to turn the clock back to 1984.

Until 1984 the ABC had taken the view that it had the right to control its employees private lives. One of the worst things about this control was that it could be used selectively. While rules against writing, participating in community organisations or making public comment were not used against most staff, members engaged in what looked like left wing activity were singled out.

The best-known case was that of Alan Ashbolt. Ashbolt was a distinguished drama critic, a respected former foreign correspondent for the ABC, a former Executive Producer of Four Corners and for many years a Senior Executive of the ABC in charge of the Talks Department. In his spare time Ashbolt wrote regularly for the well-regarded left-wing British journal, the New Statesman. While many other ABC staff, including Deputy General Manager Clement Semmler, published several books and wrote regularly for newspapers and magazines, Ashbolt was ordered not to write for the New Statesman. He saw this as political censorship, and refused the directive. There was a long struggle with the ABC management in which Ashbolt was continually hounded. Eventually he retired on health grounds, a great loss to the ABC.

I was also hounded for nearly twenty years. My permission to write for external publications was summarily withdrawn, without explanation, when it was revealed that I had been making comments on current affairs. In the nineteen seventies and eighties I worked as a volunteer, in my spare time, with a community radio station, as did many other ABC staff. This station, 3CR, broadcast programs by a range of community organisations. They included non-political groups such as the Victorian Drama League and the Jazz Society, as well as left wing unions and supporters of the Palestinian cause in the Middle East. Without any explanation I was expressly forbidden to take any part whatsoever in the operation of this station. I ignored this directive and continued to support the station.

In 1983 the ABC changed. The Australian Broadcasting Commission became the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and acquired a new Board and a new Chairman, Ken Myer. Shortly after, in 1984 the President of the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies took a "guilt by association" approach and wrote to the ABC asking that I be disciplined for my involvement in a radio station that broadcast material critical of Israeli policy towards Palestinians.

In a firm rejection of the ABC's previous policy the new Chairman sought my comments. I wrote to him that my out of hours associations, or my private beliefs, were irrelevant. What mattered was my program output:

I have worked continuously for the ABC for more than twenty years - all of that time as a broadcaster where my work can be directly examined through a television set or a radio receiver… The proof is in the pudding - let the Board of Deputies or the National Civic Council examine my program output, and that of my Department.

The ABC's Chairman accepted this point and wrote to the President of the Board of Deputies:

I know of no evidence that Mr Cassidy has been involved in any breach of our policies…In these matters the ABC's policy is quite clear: we are not concerned with the private views or activities of staff as long as these views or activities do not impinge on their professional responsibilities as broadcasters for the Corporation. The program performance of ABC employees, of course, remains the sole criterion on which continuing assessment is made of ABC output. (emphasis added)

Donald McDonald would do well to look again at the ABC's draft Code of Conduct and to uphold the principles so clearly stated by one of his predecessors as Chairman. We cannot afford to loose broadcasters of the quality of Alan Ashbolt.

Darce Cassidy