Outgoing ABC morning presenter Tony Armstrong has revealed racist abuse he has received after being criticised by the ABC's Media Watch program.
It comes in the wake of a scathing report on the ABC released this week which found all but one current or former staff member of the national broadcaster interviewed by an independent review described experiencing racism within its workplace.
It has led to suggestions of systemic racism at the ABC.
Armstrong, a Gamilaroi man, posted screenshots on Instagram of the racist abuse he has received.
He had been criticised by the ABC's Media Watch on Monday evening for doing the Voiceover of an ad campaign for one of the country's biggest insurance companies, NRMA, without notifying the national broadcaster first.
Armstrong recently announced he will be standing down from ABC News Breakfast.
On Wednesday afternoon, ABC Director of News, Justin Stevens, said he was dismayed that he had to call out abuse less than 24 hours after the report into internal racism at the national broadcaster had been released.
"Tony Armstrong is one of the ABC's best and most talented presenters. This week he has again been targeted on social media and in public comments on news websites in a despicable way," Stevens said.
"The ABC stands by Tony and will not tolerate any racist abuse. The ABC has logged the details of the abusive social media posts and made a complaint regarding the moderation of the comments."
Stevens said a previous incident involving a message sent to Armstrong in 2022 was referred to the police, which resulted in the individual pleading guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.
At the time Armstrong said "This shit has gotta stop".
"One thing is for certain though, this isn't guna stop us speaking up or stepping up. Sent to my work email, no less," he said on X, formerly Twitter.
Stevens used his statement take aim at the media, arguing: "This sort of behaviour in the community is often fed by the inflammatory nature of mainstream media coverage."
"The prominence of stories, tone of headlines and copy, photos run, and selection of story angles can foster division and outright hate," Stevens said.
National Indigenous Times has previously reported on misinformation in the media, which has at times used sensationalism to demonise Aboriginal people.
When Indigenous academic Marcia Langton noted a proliferation of racism in the country she was attacked, as was ABC reporter Laura Tingle when she made similar comments.
"This is partly why our media is so timid in addressing racism – because powerful voices try to shut down conversations that challenge the status quo," he said at the time.
Numerous Indigenous journalists have said they are regularly subject to racism on social media, and National Indigenous Times regularly removes racist comments from its social media accounts.
Last year, former ABC reporter and Wiradjuri man Stan Grant, cited an "institutional failure" from the ABC to respond and deal with racist abuse, both from the wider community and internally the broadcaster.
Grant had faced racist attacks on social media fuelled by a "relentless campaign" against the ABC's coronation broadcast from News Corp.
In 2019, Brooke Boney spoke up about January 26, where the Gamilaroi woman noted she couldn't separate her love for the "best country in the world" with the fact her "brothers are more likely to go to jail than they are to go to school".
As a result, she received racist backlash.
Stevens said whilst the ABC belongs to the public and is "rightly subject to appropriate scrutiny and feedback," at times the nature of the scrutiny on some ABC employees was "unsettling," and noted the "incessant coverage targeting them has real impacts".
