Zaky Mallah report 'complete rubbish' says SBS head

SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid has dismissed a report that convicted criminal Zaky Mallah would be given a television show as ‘complete rubbish’.

Zaky Mallah appears in the Q&A audience

Zaky Mallah appears in ABC TV's Q&A audience. Source: Supplied

News Corp had reported on a proposal for SBS show The Feed to follow Mallah, but Mr Ebeid slammed the front page article as a beat up.

In a statement issued on Saturday, he said that the idea that Mallah would be given his own show was “completely incorrect”.
“SBS had confirmed to the journalist that this was not true, yet he decided to run with an incorrect headline,” he said. 

“A freelance journalist had pitched a potential story idea to The Feed, SBS’s youth news and current affairs program, that could have involved Zaky Mallah in a story segment.

“The idea was pitched to SBS but no filming had been booked and it had not even progressed past an idea.  

“The idea had not yet even been reviewed as part of the usual SBS editorial process.”

The report, published in The Australian, stated that the program planned follow Mallah to places including a mosque, his parents' home and a courthouse.

Government ministers have also dismissed the report, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann saying the article was “completely wrong”.

“Any suggestion there was ever any proposal for this convicted criminal and terrorist sympathiser to have his own show is completely wrong,” Senator Cormann told Sky News.

“There was a proposal, I am advised, from a freelance journalist that had not gone through the proper editorial SBS managing director Michael Ebeid processes of SBS yet in anyway shape or form.

“So I am very confident based on the comments from SBS managing director Michael Ebeid that this will not go ahead in any way shape or form.”

A ban was placed on Abbott Government ministers appearing on the ABC program Q&A in June after Mallah appeared on the show in the studio audience.

This month the ABC board agreed to move the show into its news division after responding to criticism about giving Mallah a platform.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told board chairman James Spiegelman he would end a ministerial ban on the program if it was moved to the news division.


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Source: SBS

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