Against a background of overwhelming support for Schapelle Corby, the government's need for the output of the Australian media to align with its position, was self evident. They wasted no time in using a variety of measures to ensure this, including background briefings, the deployment of the DFAT funded media network, and orchestration through direct contact, both at political and operational levels.
The subsequent hostile and propagandistic output across the Australian media, against a single young woman and her family, was without precedent in the history of Australian journalism. It embraced smears, fabrications, outright lies, censorship, and a ruthless campaign, which has systematically and demonstrably managed the opinion of the Australian public.
The following reports and exhibits document the prominent and sustained role of the ABC:
EXPENDABLE REPORTS & INTERVIEWS
| EXAMPLES OF SYSTEMIC PREJUDICE & ABUSE A cross-sectional list of examples illustrating the scale and magnitude of the ABC's hostility and abuse. |
| THE PRIMARY SMEAR REPORT In Australia, dead men cannot sue. This report demonstrates how this convenience was used to manufacture the most appalling of fabrications, and false allegations, against Schapelle Corby's deceased father. |
| THE OPINION MANAGEMENT REPORT This report examines the media landscape, with particular focus upon the role of the state owned ABC. It explores some of the approaches used to influence public opinion, and describes how the propagandistic output resulted in extremely disturbing behaviour amongst large sections of Australian society. |
| UNACCOUNTABILITY The ABC has exempted itself from federal legislation, such as the Freedom of Information Act. It is ungoverned by the ACMA, and is wholly unanswerable to direct complaints from members of the public. |
| METHODS & TECHNIQUES A selection of examples which illustrate some of the disturbing methods and techniques employed by the broadcasting media. |
| THE DFAT NETWORK REPORT This report demonstrates how, through DFAT, the Australian government engineered the media such that pro-Indonesian, and often Schapelle-hostile, journalists, were positioned across the nation’s major publishers and broadcasters. |
| THE PRISON ABUSE REPORT Schapelle Corby's suffering in Kerobokan prison was significantly increased through the actions of the Australian media. As she sunk into severe mental illness, the media continually invaded her privacy, harassed her, supported her abuse by the prison for PR purposes, and worse. They breached her human rights on many occasions. |
| ONGOING ABUSES The position of the ABC has remained unaltered throughout the many years of Schapelle Corby’s incarceration. The language of manipulation has been consistent, the manufacture of outright fabrications frequent, and the airbrushing of news reports systemic. A variety of unsavoury incidents have transpired. This page will continue to be updated with the backlog of this material on a regular basis. |
EXTRACT SYNOPSIS
Management of public opinion is often of significant importance, with respect to both domestic and foreign policy of government. In Australia, with respect to Schapelle Corby, the ABC’s role in this process was increasingly stark and obvious.
Their support for the government’s initial policy, to sacrifice Schapelle Corby and her human rights, was evident even prior to the verdict. Their output followed entirely predictable domestic propaganda practices, embracing commercial media orchestration, culture & entertainment, and hostile news management.
The techniques and examples illustrated in the film are stark, and often alarming. Embedding ridicule into entertainment broadcasts followed established patterns, but the level of their news management against Schapelle Corby and her family was unprecedented. Hostile interviewing, intrusive research, and the broadcasting of fabrications as fact, are only a handful of the practices openly exposed by the film.
Other techniques revealed include repetition of hostile impact phrases, and the regular suppression of news stories positive to Schapelle Corby or family members. Political appointments to the ABC, by Prime Minister John Howard, are also embraced.
This extract presents a clear demonstration of the processes used to influence the public against Schapelle Corby and her family, including actual and unambiguous evidence to illustrate the long term nature of the ABC's agenda.
.