Sky News removed from Melbourne railway stations after extremist interview
The Victorian government has directed the state’s trains operator to remove Sky News from railway stations amid a sustained backlash to the broadcaster’s decision to interview the far-right extremist Blair Cottrell.
Jacinta Allan, Victoria’s transport minister, revealed in a tweet on Thursday morning that she had told Metro Trains to remove Sky News from station screens in Melbourne’s city centre.
Sky News is now shown on large screens in the underground stations of Melbourne’s city loop.
Allan told radio station 3AW on Thursday morning the government had decided to pull Sky from station screens because there had a been “number of interviews that had started to go down a slippery slope”.
“As the public transport minister, where it’s a public asset being used to televise particular content, I think I’ve got a responsibility to make sure that content is appropriate,” she said.
The decision has sparked a backlash from Sky and other News Corp publications.
The network’s hosts were critical of the decision on Thursday, with political editor David Speers saying the Andrews government was motivated by frustration over the coverage it received on Sky, and from the Herald Sun, which is also owned by News Corp.
Speers said the network had confirmed the Cottrell interview had not aired on train station screens in Melbourne. Allan appeared on Sky on Thursday and was questioned over the decision by Speers, who said it was a “big step for a politician to ban a particular media outlet”.
“I’m just trying to get the grounds for this, what is the reason for this, if it’s not the Blair Cottrell interview which you acknowledge now, you’re not sure whether if it was broadcast, we checked and we’re sure it was not, what are you basing this on?” Speers said.
But Allan defended the decision, saying the Cottrell interview had “given me, and not just me, many other companies around the country, the opportunity to pause and reflect about what’s appropriate in terms of what’s show”.
The Australian newspaper - also owned by News - ran a story on Thursday describing Allan’s Sky appearance as a “car crash interview” because the minister was “unable to give specific examples of offensive content that had been aired on train station platforms”.
Sky News is also broadcast at train
stations across the Sydney transport network, but a spokeswoman for the NSW transport minister Andrew Constance said the state would not be following Victoria’s lead.
“NSW will not be changing what’s aired on train platforms,” she said.
Constance’s office did not comment on Victoria’s decision or why the state would continue to air Sky.
In Queensland, four Sky News bulletins are broadcast each day at four Brisbane train stations. The Queensland transport minister, Mark Bailey, said the Cottrell segment was not broadcast at its stations.
“However as a precaution we have asked Queensland Rail to have discussions with the external company to reiterate that the advertising policy must be applied to all times, including to Sky News Australia segments,” he said.
“Queensland Rail has a strict advertising policy in place which is made clear to contractors managing advertising assets on the Queensland Rail network,” he said.
“Through this policy, we do not tolerate or allow any content which is of a hateful or discriminative nature. This policy will be closely monitored to ensure continued compliance.”
But in Victoria, Allan described the Cottrell interview as “the final straw”.
Aside from Cottrell’s appearance, she referred to Mark Latham’s past on the network and the broadcast of an interview with the Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm which saw him accused of “slut-shaming” the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
“I must say ... I’ve been long concerned about the content and quality of what is put on those screens,” she said. “You don’t really have a choice but to watch them and see them.”
Pressed by the host, Neil Mitchell, Allan said she had not watched the whole interview with Cottrell because she did not time have time “sit down and pore over every Sky News interview”.
In an interview on Sky News on Thursday afternoon, Allan was grilled over the decision given the fact the Cottrell segment had not been aired on station platforms.
Speers and Laura Jayes noted the far-right figure had also appeared on Channel Seven and the ABC in the past. They questioned whether those networks would be now be shown at train stations.
Allan said only that the decision would allow the government to “reset” the sort of content that appeared at train stations.
She emphasised that she had received dozens of complaints about Sky being shown at train stations.
The move comes after the network interviewed Cottrell on Sunday night and the broadcaster was accused of “normalising racism and bigotry” by the former Labor MP Craig Emerson, who quit his role at Sky News following the broadcast.
American Express, Huggies and Specsavers pulled their advertising from the network amid a social media campaign by the activist group Sleeping Giants Oz.
Allan said those companies had also decided they didn’t want to “be associated” with Sky News.
Sky News has been contacted for comment.