Fairfax 2010 AGM Middle East comments

November 29, 2010

Michael Burd: I am aware of many supporters of Israel who have cancelled their subscriptions, and even advertising, because of your relentless bias against Israel and the general undergradute style, left wing nature of much of the foreign coverage and opinion. What are you going to do to restore some balance in this area?

Roger Corbett: well sir, you are entirely entitled to your opinion which we respect. There are others that would disagree with you.

Only yesterday I was speaking to the Israeli ambassador, and I invited him, and he accepted the opportunity of doing an interview with one of our journalists, to put an Israeli point of view if you like.

Our papers endeavor to be balanced, and to put both sides of the question. Does it mean that there will never be a critical article about Britain, Taiwan, Japan or America - no it doesn't. Does it mean that there will never be a critical article about Israel - no it doesn't. Does it mean we endeavor to be balanced in all that we do - yes we do., and we have certainly given the ambassador that response.

But overall our editors endeavor to be as balanced as they possibly can. Does that mean that Israel is immune from any criticism in our press - no it doesn't sir.

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Daniel Small: As a Fairfax shareholder, I'm very concerned.

Firstly, according to ASX data, Fairfax is the most shortest stock on the ASX. We've got a dividend that has fallen. A share price that continues to fall, and the only thing falling further than the share price is, subscription levels in Caulfield North and East St kilda in Melbourne for The Age, and Rose Bay and Bellevue Hill for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Two of the main assets that I as a shareholder have, our daily broadsheets, are nothing more than left-wing rags that take their coverage directly from The Independent and The Guardian, and show any lack of balance.

This can be seen most frequently in the content and selection of opinion editorial pieces, and the publication - or lack thereof, of letters to the editor.

Fairfax's coverage in the Middle East, is particularly anti-Israel. If you are looking for ways to further cut costs in our company, for one, you can stop bombarding my telephone with re-subscription calls, or letters that you post to me asking me to re-subscribe to this rag, which I certainly won't do so until the quality of the journalism improves.

Secondly, if you are looking for further ways to save costs, you could do a hell of a lot better, then retrenching your editor Paul Ramage of The Age, your foreign editor Mark Baker and your storytellers - or journalists as you call them, Paul McGough and Jason Katsukis.

Roger Corbett: Well sir I accept that they are your opinions and there are many who disagree with you. As I previously said to the gentleman about Israel.

In regard to the share price, the share price has recovered from its lows. In addition to that, this business is subject to cyclical pressures and this business has performed as a media company as well as any in the world in those cycles.

Your comments about cost cutting I note, but yes we do endeavor to promote subscriptions and we do use telephone and we do use mail and other things to do.

Your comments about journalists, that you talked about personally, I don't intend to respond to those questions, and all I can say, is that our journalists, and those that manage them, do their very best to bring a balanced point of view. By the very nature of newspapers, they will always have some controversy attached to them.

Stephen Mayne: I would just like to respond to that last comment. I think that was a bit over the top. Boards do get pressured about editorial content, but I think connecting short selling with Middle East coverage - it's not relevant.

I know that Mark Baker and some of the other reporters and editors mentioned, have had a long and very creditable career at Fairfax. I equally think it would be completely inappropriate for someone on the Palestinian side of the argument to go to the News Corp AGM and demand that Andrew Bolt be sacked, and that the Herald Sun was a rag because they disagreed with a very strong support for Israel that might come from that particualr columnist or that particular media company.

So media companies need to have free and fair debate. They need to stand by their journalists. They need to listen to critics, and asses whether it's fair, but I think a sweeping attack calling for editors to be sacked, and in such language, I felt was over the top. I've never heard such language like that on an editorial issue at a media company AGM, and I just call for a bit of calm on that sort of language.

This is a shareholders meeting and we need to focus on some broader issues and I just felt that sometimes you do have to stand up for free press and the ability for editors to actually make calls, and I'd be very disturbed if a board sacked an editor because of lobbying from a particular group - any group.

We saw, I thought a disgraceful episode where Jeff Kennett lobbied the board and had Bruce Guthrie sacked, for coverage around this casino and a whole range of other things. That was one of the low points in this company's history, where you did yield to powerful external forces lobbying over editorial content.

You need to stand firm behind your journalists and your editors, when you get that sort of criticism from any quarter.

Roger Corbett: Very clearly I appreciate that - as a journalist and a person of considerable background in this area. Let me make it quite clear, that Fairfax, as I as chairman and this board, stand categorically behind our journalists and editors. We do not endeavor to influence any particular articles or any particular statement.

Our only policy is that we are fair and balanced over the period, and I believe that we achieve that in the main. It's never perfect, but I believe our people do a professional job and I unequivocally stand behind them.

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Fairfax 2010 AGM Middle East comments

November 29, 2010