ABC will change editorial policy after Rinehart violent video broadcast

The ABC has announced that new editorial policies will protect individuals against being "the subject of comedy that is violent in its description in our programming.”

The changes come as the drama around the broadcaster's airing of a controversial video about Gina Rinehart comes to an end.

After he issued an apology to Rinehart last Thursday, Managing Director Hugh Marks told ABC Radio North Queensland assured listeners that the ABC’s guidelines will now demand that “no individual should be the subject of comedy that is violent in its description in our programming”.

He added, “And I think the ABC has to hold itself to a higher standard and I think it’s really important we make that change.”

In the controversial video, made by creator Kate McGuinness, a fantasy of violence against Australia's richest woman is played out.

The ABC aired the ‘satirical’ clip of mining magnate Rinehart being mocked and assaulted, in a Race Around the World episode in July.

“Because when the revolution comes, will you hide under your bed or will you know exactly how to shove a stick right up Gina Rinehart’s butthole, stirring it round, mixing her guts up nice and smooth, making her into one big sausage roll, to make something outta nothing,” McGuinness says in the clip while depicting violence.

READ MORE: Gina Rinehart launches legal action against ABC for violent video
READ MORE: Is the ABC ok? Hugh Marks apologises, investigations head resigns

Kate McGuinness/A still from the clip about Gina Rinehart. Image: ABC/Instagram

Gina Rinehart and ABC's video drama ends with policy change

After defending the broadcast, the ABC referred the clip to its internal ombudsman. It also published an apology from creator McGuinness, and finally, late last week, issued its own apology.

“While the (ABC) ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations," Marks said.

“The ABC apologises to Mrs Rinehart and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film.”

Ombudsman findings about Rinehart video

The ombudsman initially received eight complaints about the program in the week after was broadcast. A further 988 complaints were made after criticism from “several media outlets”, The Guardian reports.

The ombudsman found “a reasonable audience member would be likely to understand the remarks as part of a satirical and exaggerated commentary.

Rinehart's company Hancock Prospecting had called for an apology at the time the video was aired. On Saturday, it issued an additional statement saying it would “wait to see long overdue changes to the ABC’s ‘editorial standards’” and accused it of normalising “violent torture against a woman till death”.

The statement also read, “Satire needs to be funny, what the ABC approved to be aired for 25 days, in its violent torture until death content, was not. 

“We await a detailed account in relation to who approved this unacceptable piece to be aired, and who approved the long delay in its removal. The buck stops with the heads of the ABC.”