Not “cancelled” by Zed

Bob: I heard from a couple of folks about your ZZZ cancelling. Would like to hear your version sometime.

Ian: I was not “cancelled”, I resigned from 4ZZZ on principle. I broadcast eight (8) speeches from international women’s day (IWD) rallies in Brisbane. Station management took exception to my IWD broadcast claiming concern about the issue of “transgender”.

Management reported that Paradigm Shift broadcast to the regulator, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) saying the broadcast contains ‘hate speech’. I say the broadcast contains ‘honestly held belief’. But I think there is more to management’s objection than they are saying.

As you can imagine, this is not the first time 4ZZZ management (or board of management) has objected to my broadcasts. For example they did so in 1977 when Y and I interviewed Senator Neville Bonner to ask him why he went along with Fraser’s Uranium ‘decision’ when it was against his own people’s best interests. I did not make another appearance on 4ZZZ again till 2011, a ‘34 year suspension’.

4ZZZ went through some dark years politically because they wanted to be accepted for a high power licence in the late 70s and were prepared to ditch programs being made by the Left who were organising the longest period of mass defiance of a government in Australian history (1977-1979) [with the exception of the aboriginal resistance].

I turned up at the station with about six Latin Americans in 2012 and the Zed people inside wouldn’t let me in to do an interview with a Chilean student leader from Santiago. It took me about an hour to convince them to let us in.

A manager also objected when I broadcast a satirical interview I did with Pauline Hanson. On another occasion, a manager and board member objected when I challenged Dept of Children’s Services (DOCs) for stealing aboriginal kids … a director general in DOCs rang up the station, threatened the manager, making false claims about the legality of what I had broadcast. I think the was out-of-her-depth politically, panicked and rang me in the middle of a demonstration where people were being arrested, accusing me of breaching broadcasting guidelines. She even dragged me before a 4ZZZ board member insisting that I explain why I should continue broadcasting. An aboriginal woman who attended the meeting explained my broadcast and the manager and a board member relented, allowing the show to continue.

So as much as X. might try to cast me into the role of martyr, I do not fit his Christian narrative. This is one of the problems with the Bring Julian Assange home campaign.

You should listen sometime on radio 4PR – Voice of the People. You can hear it on all the major podcast platforms.

Bob: Did you ever watch the video I sent around a while back, and interview between Bobmy Dore and Glenn Greenwald?

Ian: Do you mean this interview between Dore and Greenwald ?