ABC watchdog finds litany of failings at Four Corners

The ABC’s flagship investigative program Four Corners had a culture that favoured limiting knowledge about anonymous sources, fell short on fact-checking and had inadequate upward referral processes, its independent ombudsman has found.

The ombudsman’s report into Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway, two episodes fronted by sacked reporter Mahmood Fazal, was released on Tuesday afternoon and found the programs failed to meet the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy, fair and honest dealing and independence and integrity.

“The breaches were the result of a combination of factors,” the report reads. “These include management’s failure to properly interrogate, inadequate upward referral, a culture that favoured limiting knowledge about sources given perceived risks, insufficient verification and fact-checking, and a failure to provide the audience with the context necessary to assess the reliability of the information presented.”

Fazal has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that his stories went through the program’s standard editorial checks.