Rashna Farrukh says the Christchurch massacre shows media coverage has ‘real life consequences’
A young Muslim woman says she quit her junior liaison job at Sky News after the Christchurch massacre because she felt the commentators were increasing polarisation and fear.
“Some nights I felt physically sick, others I even shed tears in my car on the way home,” Rashna Farrukh wrote for ABC online after resigning from Sky after three years. “I continued to compromise my values. Not only my values as a member of a religious group who was continuously being blamed and alienated by the rhetoric on these shows, but also as an aspiring journalist.
“I compromised my values and beliefs to stand idly by as I watched commentators and pundits instil more and more fear into their viewers.”
Sky News commentator Chris Kenny criticised the ABC for running the piece. An original version was corrected because Farrukh claimed Sky News Australia broadcast images from inside the mosque. Sky says it showed segments of the live stream but not from inside the mosque.
Farrukh listed interviews she had witnessed that had disturbed her including Cory Bernardi advocating to ban the burqa, Pauline Hanson talking about her motion “It’s OK to Be White” and Bronwyn Bishop claiming that “war” had been declared against western culture.
“I answered calls from viewers who yelled about immigrants and Muslims ruining Australia,” she said. “They did not realise that the person on the other end of the phone was both of those things.
“I stood on the other side of the studio doors while they slammed every minority group in the country – mine included – increasing polarisation and paranoia among their viewers.”
Farrukh was a casual liaison staffer for the Australian news channel’s Canberra studio in Parliament House, where she helped studio guests and assisted in the office. She said she hoped to get a fulltime job after graduating from university.
“Even as young journalists, we should act on our morals now rather than at some point in the future where we assume that we will have more of a say,” she wrote. “As we saw in Christchurch, what happens in our media can have real life consequences.”
A spokesperson for Sky News said: “We respect Rashna’s decision and wish her well with her future endeavours.
“As a news and national affairs broadcaster Sky News is committed to debate and discussion which is vital to a healthy democracy.”
The media is under pressure after the tragedy as questions are asked about giving platforms to politicians with extreme views.
The ABC has apologised for live streaming Fraser Anning’s Brisbane press conference on Facebook. The ABC News executive editor, Craig McMurtrie, said the decision not to take the press conference live on any ABC platform did not get to a social media producer who uploaded it to Facebook.
McMurtrie told Rafael Epstein on ABC Melbourne radio that it was a mistake.
The ABC decided early on Friday not to show any GoPro vision shot by the killer, but Channel Seven and Nine and Sky did show excerpts and are now being investigated by the media watchdog.
“This is a fraught area for reporting, particularly as events are unfolding and instant editorial decisions have to be made,” McMurtrie wrote. “We don’t always get it right.
“There is a legitimate debate to be had about the extent to which showing any disturbing pictures or identifying an attacker gives that person exactly what they want.
“But reporting what happened and analysing how it could have happened are clearly in the public interest. It’s what responsible journalists do – the test is whether it can be done without giving the alleged shooter the platform they crave.”
According to Media Watch, Seven and Nine also showed vision from inside the mosque at one point.
