Women Speak Tasmania

Category: Media Bias

  • The Advocate’s Bias Against Women Speak Tasmania

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    When Women Speak Tasmania’s planned North West forums were cancelled by Devonport Library and The Hive, we expected local media to report fairly. Instead, The Advocate chose to frame us through a biased lens — echoing activist talking points and misrepresenting our position. Journalist Sarah Fittock contacted us with questions, but the story published implied…

  • When Women’s Voices Are Silenced in the Name of “Inclusion”

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    On 16 June 2024, ABC Radio Hobart’s Breakfast with Ryk Goddard featured an interview with Equality Tasmania’s Rodney Croome about Launceston City Council’s decision to develop an LGBTQAI+ inclusion plan. The conversation quickly turned to a deeper and more troubling issue: whether women in Tasmania are being denied the right to speak publicly when their…

  • ABC Hobart’s Leon Compton Crosses the Line: An Interview with Louise Elliot

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    On 21 February 2024, Independent Candidate for Clark and Hobart City Councillor Louise Elliot appeared on ABC Radio Hobart’s Mornings program, hosted by Leon Compton. What should have been an opportunity for voters to hear about Elliot’s vision and election platform quickly devolved into a one-sided interrogation. In a letter to Fiona Cameron- ABC Ombudsman,…

  • When Journalists Silence Debate: Leon Compton Saying NO Debate on the Drum

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    On 9 June 2023, ABC journalist Leon Compton appeared on The Drum and made an extraordinary admission. He questioned whether dissenting views should be aired at all: “As a journalist it’s sometimes hard because you want to air a balance of perspectives but what perspectives are reasonable to air? Particularly those that dress up opposition,…

  • The Media’s Campaign Against Media Freedom and Free Speech in Tasmania – Let Women Speak

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    This speech, delivered by Isla MacGregor at the Let Women Speak rally on the Parliament House lawns in Hobart in March 2023, outlines her concerns about media coverage, public institutions, and gender-identity policy debates in Tasmania. She argues that journalists and broadcasters have avoided reporting viewpoints from women’s and children’s rights advocates, describes her experiences…

  • When Journalism Becomes Advocacy: Ryk Goddard’s Bias on ABC Hobart

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    Public trust in journalism depends on balance, fairness, and a willingness to present all sides of the story. Unfortunately, ABC Hobart’s Breakfast presenter Ryk Goddard has repeatedly failed to meet these standards, particularly on sensitive issues such as women’s rights, safeguarding, and gender identity. The Case of Cr Louise Elliott’s Motion On 14 February 2023,…

  • Media Accountability: When the ABC Sidelines Critical Voices in the Gender Identity Debate

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    In our ongoing efforts to ensure meaningful and evidence-based public discourse, and to express our disappointment with the inadequate and unsatisfactory response we received from ABC Hobart Manager, Marcus Cheek, Isla MacGregor recently wrote to Fiona Cameron—ABC Tasmania’s Ombudsman—expressing deep concern over the broadcaster’s biased and incomplete coverage of gender identity law reform discussions. Requesting…

  • Media Failure: ABC’s Oversight on Tavistock Closure & the Gender Debate

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    In August 2022, ABC’s Media Watch, hosted by Paul Barry, took the extraordinary step of criticising its own broadcaster for failing to report on the closure of the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service—the UK’s central clinic serving transgender youth. Despite covering many other trans-related stories, the ABC remained silent on this pivotal development. Public Concern…

  • The Mercury’s One-Sided Report on Gender Identity Forum

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    Women Speak Tasmania’s official complaint noted that the article misrepresented the forum’s organisers—it was incorrectly portrayed as an “anti-trans” event. It was also organised by the Coalition for Biological Reality, not Women Speak Tasmania. The public forum was titled: “Gender Identity in Law – Impacts on Women, Children and Transgender People: Balancing the Conversation.” The…

  • ABC Hobart Mornings on Tasmania’s Self-ID Launch Day: A Critique of Media Framing

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    On 5 September 2019, the day Tasmania’s self-identification laws came into effect, ABC Radio Hobart’s Mornings program featured an interview between host Leon Compton and Roen Meijers, one of the first four people to amend their birth certificate. The discussion centred on personal experiences and celebrations at the Rosny Births, Deaths and Marriages office, including…