I have watched with significant concern the issues around the departure of Mr Stan Grant from the ABC. Stan, as an Indigenous Australian and as a career journalist, has played a significant role not only through his own career but also as a leading voice of First Nations People within the mainstream media.
What happened to Stan as a result of his participation as a commentator during the coronation of King Charles III should be condemned.
For a long time, the ECCNSW has championed multicultural representation within Australian media. We were the first to embrace a Media Mentoring Program with Macquarie University and SBS, a program for which we still receive recognition. As the trailblazers in this space, we recognised the problem nearly 15 years ago around the underrepresentation of multicultural faces and voices in mainstream media. Since then, programs such as the Media Mentoring Program have been replicated, and indeed whole organisations have been established only to address this very significant concern for Australia generally.
The racist vitriol experienced by Stan Grant because of views he expressed during the Coronation of King Charles III should be condemned in the strictest possible terms. More concerning is the fact that ABC management was silent when it should have been supporting him completely. If the National Broadcaster was unable or otherwise unwilling to defend one of its lead journalists then it turns to non-government organisations to do so. This event should galvanise all of us when addressing the questions of why organisations like the ECCNSW are still relevant.
The ECCNSW stands with Stan Grant as a champion of the multiculturalisation of Australian Media.
Peter Doukas OAM
Chair
Ethnic Communities Council