Fed: PM backs broadcaster Jones but not his comments

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2007
Fed: PM backs broadcaster Jones but not his comments

CANBERRA, April 12 AAP - Prime Minister John Howard has continued his defence of embattled
broadcaster Alan Jones, but stopped short of endorsing controversial comments he made
in the lead-up to the Cronulla race riots.

Mr Howard today avoided saying whether he agreed with a listener's comments Jones read
out on air that have drawn the wrath of the communications watchdog.

In the days before the riot, Jones read out comments calling on bikie gangs to confront
"Lebanese thugs" at the Cronulla railway station.

Asked if he agreed with the comments, Mr Howard said he normally voiced his personal
views by responding to direct questions.

"I don't normally transmit my views through saying I agree with something that somebody
else has said when I don't know the full context of what may have been said, I'm not falling
for that," Mr Howard told journalists in Canberra.

But Mr Howard repeated his earlier defence of Jones.

"He represents the views of a lot of people on a lot of issues," Mr Howard said.

"I haven't read all of the transcript about fighting or anything, but I make the point
that I made yesterday, and that is that he is a very good broadcaster.

"I don't believe that he is an agent of prejudice and discrimination in the community,
that some have implied."

The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) this week ruled Jones encouraged
violence and vilified people before the notorious Cronulla race riot during his breakfast
program on commercial Sydney radio station 2GB.

In its findings released on Tuesday, the ACMA said 2GB's licence holder, Harbour Broadcasting,
twice breached the broadcast code by airing certain comments by Jones in the days before
the December 2005 Cronulla riot.

Jones' comments contravened the code because they were likely to "encourage violence
or brutality" and "vilify people of Lebanese background and of Middle Eastern background",
the ACMA said.

But the broadcaster yesterday lashed out at the communications watchdog, accusing it
of being biased and inexperienced in the world of talkback radio.

AAP jb/srp/de

KEYWORD: JONES HOWARD

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