The ABC’s managing director and editor in chief Hugh Marks has revealed the broadcaster paid a $340,000 contribution towards a documentary starring Brittany Higgins entitled Silenced, The Australian reports.
The admission came during a Senate estimates committee hearing on Tuesday, where Marks also said that the ABC won’t imply in the partly taxpayer-funded film that Higgins was “silenced” by her former bosses, Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown.
Mediaweek has reached out to the ABC for comment.
The ABC answers questions about Higgins film Silenced
During the hearing, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson raised concerns about the premise of the film and the ABC’s funding of it.
Addressing Marks, Senator Henderson said:
“The premise of the program (is) that women are fighting against the weaponisation of defamation laws to silence survivors. You would no doubt be aware that two Australian courts have found that Ms Higgins was not silenced and, in fact, made dishonest claims in asserting that the former West Australian senator Linda Reynolds and (her chief of staff) Fiona Brown improperly covered up (her) rape in Parliament House.
“Fiona Brown was within minutes of committing suicide after being subjected to these horrendous false allegations.
“Have you sought to verify what’s in this documentary? Have you sought to establish what’s in the script, what is claimed and, in fact, whether it is defamatory of either Ms Reynolds or Ms Brown?”
Marks confirmed the public broadcaster had helped fund the documentary and was committed to bring the film to Australian screens, but and further revealed he hadn’t yet seen “screening copy” of the documentary or been provided with its script.
“Our contribution, senator, looks like it’s $340,000, which is 14 per cent of the total budget of $2.5m,” Marks said.
“I haven’t seen the details of it. I’ve seen it on the slate of programs that’s been acquired. I’m not sure whether we’ve received the screening copy or … when it’s due to be scheduled, senator, (but) it will go through, of course, our normal editorial policy review processes before its telecast.”
Senator Sarah Henderson. Image: Instagram
Higgins legal case
A court has found that, on the balance of probabilities, Ms Higgins was raped by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann during a late-night visit to Ms Reynolds’ office but that any suggestion the then senator or Ms Brown attempted to cover it up was unfounded.
The Australian reports that lawyers for Reynolds wrote to the film’s Australian producers, Stranger Than Fiction Films, saying that she would take legal action if there was any suggestion she had used defamation laws to silence survivors.
Henderson said at the hearing:
“I just want to make it clear, I am not in any way reflecting on the terrible incident that happened … I have great empathy for Ms Higgins in relation to the findings of the court in relation to the sexual assault. But I am disgusted that two innocent women, being the former WA senator Linda Reynolds and her former chief of staff, were improperly implicated in covering up this crime.
“I am disgusted by the false allegations which have destroyed the lives of these two women for the last four years.
“Linda Reynolds has told me that the producers of the movie have declined to provide her lawyers with the transcript or the link to the documentary, which is available for streaming in the USA, but it’s geo-blocked here in Australia.
“So what I’m asking is whether your acquisition of this documentary meets those standards, whether you have considered what’s being claimed because it appears, based on what has been published, is that there are erroneous claims in relation to the former senator Linda Reynolds and her former chief of staff Fiona Brown.”
Marks later told the hearing that he had received an update:
“I am assured there is no mention of Fiona Brown or Linda Reynolds in the documentary,” he said.
“I hear your concerns, Senator … obviously defamation is something that we cannot contemplate.
“We will make sure that the project obviously goes through all appropriate reviews, legal reviews and editorial reviews before broadcast.”
Screen Australia’s part in Higgins movie Silenced
Screen Australia, the federal film agency, invested $250, 000 in Silenced, plus $20,000 to fly its producers to the premiere at last month’s Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
Deirdre Brennan, the federal film agency’s chief executive, said at the hearing that the travel of Higgins and her husband David Sharaz to Sundance had not been funded by taxpayers.
The AFR now reports that the Silenced script will appear on the website of the Senate’s standing committee on the environment and communications in about six weeks, meaning the public can read it before the planned official release of the movie in Australia.