The Fatima Payman affair has viscerally divided Australian politics. On the one hand, her supporters have branded the newly independent senator a fresh breath of conscience; on the other hand, the Labor faithful have used charming party adjectives to brand her a “rat”. But it’s the displays of ignorance and uninformed assumptions about Islam that has stood out to Muslim journalists, with some branding the industry’s coverage of Payman’s defection “disgusting”.
Crikey spoke to a number of Muslim journalists about the Payman affair and what it demonstrates about the fourth estate’s relationship with Islam. There are so few Muslim journalists in Australia, especially in Canberra, that no-one would speak to us on the record for fear for their safety or possible professional fallout, with one noting that there had been an exodus of diverse journalists from the industry since October 7.
A number of hot takes have done the rounds in the past week. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Parnell Palme McGuinness suggested that the Islamic concept of ummah (community) was out of step with notions of social cohesion, while stablemate Peter Hartcher asked whether Payman was the “Pauline Hanson of the left” in becoming a single-issue politician. The Australian Financial Review’s Phil Coorey, in an appearance on the ABC’s Insiders, described the mere act of political groups organising around Islam (as compared to the Christian Democrats of the late 1990s) “inflammatory”, while The Australian’s Paul Kelly said Payman had “broken the unwritten rules of multiculturalism”.
Dirt pieces run by News Corp featuring former Labor colleagues backgrounding against Payman described her donations to a “Barbie-hating Islamic TV studio”, and asked whether she had “questions to answer” over her dual citizenship with Afghanistan, having fled the now-ruling Taliban for Australia as a refugee in 2003.
(When elected in 2022, Payman and the Labor Party said they had received legal advice that her eligibility to sit in the Parliament was not in question as she had undertaken all reasonable steps to renounce her citizenship. With Australia having since established a special representative to Afghanistan (based in Qatar), it is less clear whether it is now possible for Payman to renounce her citizenship. In any case, Professor Anne Twomey, a constitutional law expert from the University of Sydney, notes a referral from the Senate to the Court of Disputed Returns would be unlikely, given Labor endorsed Payman in the first place with full knowledge of her circumstances.)
In a piece since edited to include remarks from Payman’s press conference on Thursday, the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas highlighted apparent concerns from the senator’s former caucus colleagues “over claims [Payman] was being ‘guided by God’”:
When asked by several colleagues about her view on the amendment being moved by fellow Labor Senator Penny Wong about the need for a two-state solution, [Payman] said it was ‘absolutely in God’s hands’.
One journalist Crikey spoke to said the media coverage suggested “the media doesn’t even understand Islam”.
“Patricia [Karvelas] ran with a story … because she had no understanding of the religion or what [Payman] was saying,” they said.
The journalist said it also rankled to see uninformed coverage surface given all of the lip service employers have paid to the need for diversity in newsrooms.
“People at my workplace know I’m a Muslim. They can ask me. If they want to do a representative article, they can come and ask me if they want to.”
Another journalist said the “bullying of Fatima Payman is completely reminiscent” of the bullying they experienced at the hands of their employer since the war intensified.
“It’s been exceptionally triggering to see this all unfold. At times I falsely thought this country’s media had progressed in how they cover Muslims but it’s just as cheap and nasty as it was post-9/11,” they said.
“The wider Australian population has progressed … but the media are very out of touch with that reality. The fact that a visibly Muslim senator cannot say the word ‘inshallah’ without a dog-whistling article that leans on ‘backgrounding’ by anonymous Labor politicians painting Senator Payman as some kind of fundamentalist is pathetic.
“I think the media for a long time have thought of Muslims as ‘fair game’, and that is something deeply embedded in how they sell the narrative, leaning on tropes of the extremist or sinister Muslim who has an Islamic agenda.”
One reporter told Crikey they expected a response, but not one as intense as they had seen.
“Disgusting. I knew some would go after her faith, but I never expected it to be this rabid. It goes to show we still have a long way to go in this industry.”
Another reporter said “every time I write about Senator Payman, I am inundated with the most Islamophobic shit I have ever seen,” telling Crikey the environment “will only lead to more journalists of colour retreating, disheartened by the utter dehumanisation of their families and communities.”
“Media diversity is more than just about superficial representation. It’s about having access to misunderstood languages and cultures that will enable newsroom discussions about the merits of what is offered to journalists on background, to be able to properly assess whether it’s news, or just plain perpetuating stereotypes and Islamophobia.”
Mariam Veiszadeh, CEO of Media Diversity Australia, told Crikey that her organisation is “regularly in touch with culturally diverse journalists, some of whom include Australian Muslims, including in the past few weeks as the Senator Payman situation has been unfolding. The sentiments expressed to us confidentially echo the sentiments shared with Crikey anonymously.”
“Over the past year as we have been speaking to several journalists there is a growing concern that their diverse backgrounds are tokenised, their lived experiences overlooked, and some have expressed feeling stifled. We have seen several departures from the industry citing these reasons,” said Veiszadeh.
Disclosure: Daanyal Saeed is a Muslim.
What have you made of the media’s coverage of the Fatima Payman affair? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
