{"id":80491,"date":"2026-08-26T03:20:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:20:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:20:27","slug":"abc-rejects-sarah-ferguson-documentary-sentient-amid-row-over-ethics-and-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/80491\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC rejects Sarah Ferguson documentary Sentient amid row over ethics and funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ABC is refusing to air a documentary linked to two of its biggest personalities, 7.30 presenter Sarah Ferguson and her husband, former Q+A host Tony Jones, as the public broadcaster faces mounting questions<\/a> about the film\u2019s politically charged financing and Ferguson\u2019s failure to disclose her connection to it.<\/p>\n

Despite giving Jones a valuable 21-minute spot to spruik his anti-vivisection film, Sentient, on Radio National ahead of its premiere at the Melbourne Inter\u00adnational Film Festival earlier this month, the ABC has told its stars their 95-minute movie<\/a> will not be shown on the channel.<\/p>\n

One of the film\u2019s producers broke the news to attendees at a screening of the film at Brisbane\u2019s Palace Cinemas on Friday night, hours after they had received word that their bid to have the film aired on the ABC had been knocked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cTony Jones was due to appear for the Q&A session after the screening, but his producer, Ivan O\u2019Mahoney, said he had taken ill that morning in Sydney and couldn\u2019t attend,\u201d one audience member said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIvan said that very day the ABC had turned down the film and wouldn\u2019t be showing it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe offered no explanation but seemed disappointed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to wonder, with a pedigree involving Sarah and Tony and the influence they must have within the ABC, why they were knocked back. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ABC endlessly and shamelessly plugs and publishes all manner of books by their \u00adpeople, so why not Sentient?\u201d<\/p>\n

The ABC certainly did its best to promote the film on Julian Morrow\u2019s Sunday Extra show on Radio National on August 9 when the former The Chaser star introduced the documentary\u2019s director as \u201csomeone from the pantheon of ABC journalism, seven-time Walkley Award winner Tony Jones\u201d.<\/p>\n

Morrow then went on to plug the film\u2019s upcoming screening in Melbourne, adding that \u201cSentient was selected to screen at Sundance earlier this year, and it\u2019s on at the Melbourne International Film Festival on the 11th and 13th of August\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ABC declined to comment on why it rejected the film for screening, but the decision follows growing concerns over Ferguson\u2019s involvement as the project\u2019s executive producer after her high-profile position at the public broadcaster, hosting its flagship nightly current affairs show, was used to bolster a funding application for the film submitted to Screen Australia in October 2023.<\/p>\n

By that stage, the documentary, which examines the heated debate surrounding medical testing on monkeys and other primates, had already received a $3m cash injection from animal rights activist groups Animals Australia and Growing Kindness, which campaigned in support of Labor and the Greens against the \u00adCoalition at the last election.<\/p>\n

As part of the Screen Australia application process, Ferguson was pitched as a \u201ckey creative\u201d at the centre of the project, as well as its executive producer\/<\/p>\n

Her CV, along with links to her profile and work at the ABC, was also attached, while her status on the documentary was listed as \u201cconfirmed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers succeeded in securing $200,000 in funding from Screen Australia to assist with financing the movie, but given the project had already received more than 10 times as much from the animal rights activist groups, it is understood that the documentary would have proceeded regardless.<\/p>\n

Even though Ferguson\u2019s connection to the activist groups\u2019 fin\u00adancing raised a serious potential conflict of interest in her \u00adtaxpayer-funded position, she failed to disclose her connection to the film to her employers at the ABC for more than two years, \u00adnotifying the broadcaster\u2019s then head of news and current affairs, Justin Stevens, only on November 28 last year after learning that it had been accepted for screening<\/a> at the Sundance Film Festival in the US.<\/p>\n

In a belated bid to disclose her connection to the documentary and receive retroactive approval to accept an executive producer credit, Ferguson fired off an after-hours email to Stevens on a Friday night, informing him that she had \u201cco-developed with Jones an idea for a series that became a \u00addocumentary concept later\u201d, while also noting she had not been paid for her contribution to the project.<\/p>\n

Stevens then sent the request on to the ABC\u2019s managing director and editor-in-chief, Hugh Marks, at 6am on Saturday, seeking urgent approval for Ferguson, before receiving permission from him three hours later.<\/p>\n

Ferguson and Jones subsequently both travelled to Utah to attend the Sundance screening in January.<\/p>\n

Questioned at length about Ferguson\u2019s connection to the documentary and its funding during a Senate estimates hearing in May, Mr Marks assured the federal communications committee that the 7.30 host had \u201cno active role in the financing of the program\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, he insisted, her involvement had been limited to \u201ctossing around ideas\u201d and that the concept had been \u201ctaken forward by other people that did not involve Ms Ferguson\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Marks has since refused to comment on whether he stood by that testimony, given the revelations that Ferguson\u2019s position and profile with the ABC were clearly used to add weight to the \u00adfilmmakers\u2019 funding applications and were involved in the finan\u00adcing of the film.<\/p>\n

While there is no suggestion Mr Marks was aware of \u00adFerguson\u2019s connection to the funding bids or that he deliberately misled the Senate committee, opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the revelations \u201cappear to contradict Hugh Marks\u2019 testimony \u2026 that Sarah Ferguson played no active role in the documentary\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ms Ferguson did not disclose all relevant facts about her role, this is a serious matter which must have consequences,\u201d Senator Henderson said.<\/p>\n

A series of questions from Senator Henderson, taken on notice at the Senate estimates session in May concerning Ferguson\u2019s involvement, including whether she attended the Sundance Film Festival in her capacity as executive producer of the Sentient documentary or had \u201cbeen counselled in relation to failing to disclose her role\u201d to the ABC, remain un\u00adanswered three months later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ABC is refusing to air a documentary linked to two of its biggest personalities, 7.30 presenter 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