Why the Telegraph beats The Australian on terror

The News Limited terror circus continues in earnest – November 9 2005

I have just been told that today Australian Federal Police officials briefed select Muslim leaders in Sydney. The message they gave was quite clear. They had nothing to do with tipping off media about the raids.

AFP officials told the leaders that operations of such magnitude and sensitivity are generally conducted with the utmost secrecy and that AFP has specific protocols which must be followed in relation to media coverage.

Which raises the question – who told Channel 9 and the other crews? How did they know about the raids? How did the helicopters and infra-red equipment get involved?

The media circus raises the prospect that the accused persons may not get as fair a trial as they might otherwise expect.

In a strange twist, it seems that Sydney’s tabloid Daily Telegraph has been more sensible in its coverage today than its broadsheet brother The Australian. The DT’s editorial did not make a single reference to religion or ethnicity. Indeed, it went out of its way to stated:

“Even should it play out in court that the majority, even all, of the suspects are Islamic, that should not be misinterpreted. Fanaticism is not the sole preserve of Islam, as the evidence of terrorism attests.”

Piers Akerman, often accused of lashing out at anything resembling Islam, was restrained. The bulk of his venom was saved for the “fundamental naivety” of “the ABC and SBS and the Fairfax publications.”

Some of the DT’s stories on the issue were a little over-the-top and with added spice. As usual, they provided a phone number and website for witnesses of raids or acquaintances of the accused to contact the paper. And the linking of suspect Omar Baladjam to the Green Valley Mosque was also a little suspicious.

Yes, it may be true that Mr Baladjam was apprehended on Wilson Road. Yes, the Mosque is on Wilson Road. But then, so is the police station, the McDonalds, the shopping centre and the community centre used for many Hindu festivals. All within close proximity and all on Wilson Road.

I guess the reporters at the DT don’t know the area all that well. Still, on this occasion, notwithstanding the error, they did their job quite admirably.

Some of you may disagree. You might regard their front page headline of “Holy War On Australia” as being provocative. It wasn’t. It reflected the reality that there are people in this country who think it is OK to kill one’s self and others for the sake of some mythical jihad. Trust me. They exist.

It only takes a few of them to create havoc. The sort of havoc we saw in London. These raids were necessary. Now we let the courts decide. The prosecution will present their case. The accused will all have proper legal representation. Independent judges will ultimately decide.

In their relatively honest coverage, the DT have actually done an enormous favour to those who oppose the Government’s proposed Anti-Terror Bill. The DT, their reporters and columnists have praised the actions of police and investigators. They have vindicated the process. In doing so, they have vindicated the current law and shown it to be effective.

The Australian, on the other hand, are forced to tinker with the facts and present a distorted view of reality. They are forced into using the sort of headlines fit for the Daily Truth.

“Osama’s Aussie offspring”. “Cleric’s spiritual spiral”. Even mention of “Mother of Satan” (you have to read beyond the headline to realise this is the name of an explosive).

On page 2 is an article entitled: “Moderate Muslims welcome arrests”. The paper then went onto cite the words of the secretary of “a leading Muslim group”. And what was this group?

The Australian Arabic Council.

In case anyone didn’t know, the AAC is a non-sectarian organisation that seeks to represent Australians of Arab background. Generally that means Australians whose ethnic origins are from an Arab League nation.

In Australia, the majority of Arabs are not, in fact, Muslims. Further, Arab Muslims make up less than 20% of the world’s Muslim population.

The next group cited is the Islamic Charitable Projects Association which belongs to the al-Ahbash sect. This group is known to have close links to the Syrian Government. Some of the group’s leaders in Lebanon were named in the independent UN Investigative Report (the Mehlis Report) as being directly involved in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

The editorials were a fairly lame affair compared to previous days when opponents of the Anti-Terrorism Bill were described as “idiotic”. Paul Kelly, as always, was balanced and thinking outside the usual simplistic square and beyond the security –v- liberty spectrum. Even Janet Albrechtsen had a fairly reasonable (actually, I thought it was sensational) article on why feminists need to stand up for non-European women’s rights also.

Yes, the circus continues in earnest. But the animals seem to be calming down.

PS: Waleed Aly's op-ed piece in The Australian on 10 November 2005 was just sensational. Yep, The Australian can get it right sometimes. The message needs to get out there loud and clear. Thick-Sheiks don't represent the broader Aussie Mossie community. And media outlets should stop giving them so much attention.