Lead No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price declined 52 interview requests from the ABC ahead of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
The ABC’s referendum coverage review committee report, focusing on its coverage of the referendum in October, found voices on the referendum’s No side were “significantly more difficult” to get on the record across all of the broadcaster’s platforms, which led to more coverage of the Yes perspectives.
Videos by VICE
According to the report, the reasons for more coverage of the Yes campaign outside of a lack of people willing to come on to discuss the no side, included time taken up by government press conferences which often argued for the yes vote, and a decision to focus on First Nations voices, who were predominantly arguing for yes.
It found, of the coverage that expressed a position on the Voice, 51% was in favour, 23% was against, 2% was undecided and 24% neutral.
Prominent No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine, while appearing on a handful of programs including Triple J’s “Hack” and Radio National, declined most requests for interviews.
The report said all ABC teams struggled to get No voices to speak on the record.
“This was true of both high-profile representatives of the campaign, such as Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and ordinary citizens for talkback and vox pops. It was true in both predominantly Indigenous communities and predominantly non-Indigenous communities,“ the report said.
The media strategies of the different camps had an effect as well, discovering that the No camp had fewer high-profile advocates. Their strategy was to focus on social media and “what they perceived as friendly broadcasters”.
“Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, for instance, declined at least 52 interview requests with the ABC and did not agree to a single interview on a major broadcast program,” the report said.
“A wide range of Yes advocates made themselves available. This seems to have been part of conscious strategies of both campaigns.”
Warren Mundine confirmed twice to appear on the ABC’s Q+A program before pulling out before the show, and neither Mundine or Price appeared on the broadcaster’s 7.30 program “despite repeated requests”.
_
Adele is the Junior Writer & Producer for VICE AU/NZ. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter here.
Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online._
