ABC has appointed former ABC Editorial Director Alan Sunderland to conduct the independent review into the its Line of Fire reports.
The review follows revelations on 7News Spotlight that the broadcaster added extra gunshots to audio to wrongly claim former Australian Commando Heston Russell had committed war crimes.
Media Watch subsequently discovered Russell’s lawyer had sent a letter raising concerns to the ABC’s legal department and posed a series of questions.
It will include all aspects of the Line of Fire reports broadcast on 7:30 in September 2022 and published online.
The ABC has requested a final report into the matter by the end of October. The report will be made public including recommendations.
Sunderland is a Walkley Award winning journalist who spent 40 years working for SBS and ABC. From 2013 to 2019 he was the Editorial Director of the ABC with overall responsibility for editorial standards, editorial complaints and journalism training.
He is an Independent Journalist Member of the Australian Press Council and a former Executive Director of the international Organisation of News Ombudsmen.
ABC has previously blamed the audio on an “editing error” telling Spotlight, (producer) Jo Puccini, and (journalists) Mark Willacy and Josh Robertson played no role.
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