ABC’s Impartiality Questioned After Lack of Hamas Execution Coverage

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has been probed for not covering a brutal act by the terrorist group Hamas.

This comes amid growing concerns about the national broadcaster’s impartiality in reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

During a recent Senate Estimates hearing, Liberal Senator Jacinta Price questioned ABC representatives about why the broadcaster failed to report on the execution of three Gaza civilians who were accused of being Israeli collaborators in late September 2025.

“The ABCs editorial policies also stress the need for accuracy, including making reasonable efforts to ensure that material facts are accurate and presented in context, and to avoid presenting content in a way that will materially mislead the audience, impartiality, including balance that follows the weight of evidence, fairness, including avoiding misrepresenting a person’s organisation’s views, and objectivity, including exploring all possible explanations and narratives to issues or events,” Price said.

“I’ve also done a bit of research for ABC’s coverage of this story, and I haven’t found anything.

“It appears as though these events weren’t widely covered by the ABC, and I’d like to understand why that’s the case.”

It was noted that the execution occurred around the same time as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recognition of the state of Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly.

ABC’s Response

ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks said he was not aware of the specific story in question. However, he believed that the broadcaster’s editorial team had done a good job in covering the conflict in Gaza in the past few years.

“I can’t talk to every editorial decision that gets made in the context of that coverage … but I think we can be incredibly proud of our coverage and the quality and extensiveness of it,” Marks said.

“I don’t have any doubt that the ABC has covered the atrocities of Hamas and how they operate. I don’t think our audience would have any doubts about that.”

Marks’ comments were echoed by ABC Editorial Director Gavin Fang.

“I’m not aware of the coverage of the other example that you spoke to, but as the managing director said, we have extensively covered this conflict over the past two years, including covering the atrocities committed by Hamas, not just on Oct. 7, but also, in particular, retribution by Hamas on citizens in Gaza itself,” he said.

However, Price pointed out that the incident was widely covered by domestic media outlets, such as Sky News Australia.

“If other outlets were able to report on it, why then would the ABC not be able to? If other outlets can do that, why didn’t our national broadcaster do the same thing?” she asked.

ABC representatives were unable to give a direct answer to the senator’s question.

“I’m not aware of whether or not, or how we might have covered this story. I just wanted to make the point that we have covered extensively and previously the conduct of Hamas,” Fang said.

Concerns About Growing Support for Hamas in Australia

Price then raised concerns that many Australians currently lack a clear understanding of Hamas and its atrocities, pointing to activities glorifying the terrorist group.

“We’re seeing a lot of support for Hamas. We’ve seen just this week, glory to Hamas and the main street in Melbourne, I would have thought that it would have been important to cover all aspects of the conduct of a terrorist organisation that is being glorified now in our country,” she said.

“And missing this, I think it is a huge missed opportunity to do so, so the Australian public can be truly informed as to the conduct of a terrorism organisation that is gaining support in our country and heading and creating more division in our country than unity.”

The senator’s comments came after pro-Hamas graffiti was spotted across Melbourne ahead of the commemoration of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which resulted in the death of around 1,200 people.

“Glory to Hamas” was seen painted on a billboard in the suburb of Fitzroy, while other graffiti called for another organised terrorist act against Israel.

The federal and Victorian Labor governments have publicly condemned the graffiti. Meanwhile, police investigations are still ongoing.