KEY POINTS
- A Sydney man has been charged over making online threats towards ABC journalist Stan Grant.
- He was arrested on Wednesday, was granted bail, and will face court again later in the month.
- Grant stepped away from his role as host of the ABC's Q+A program on Monday, citing racial abuse.
NSW Police have charged a Sydney man over alleged threats towards Wiradjuri journalist Stan Grant.
The 41-year-old was arrested at an address in Fairfield Heights in Sydney's west on Wednesday.
It came after police received a report about alleged online harassment towards Grant, 59, earlier this week.
The man has been charged with using a carriage service to threaten serious harm and to menace/harass/offend.
He was granted bail and will face court again later in the month.
Grant on Monday , "for a while" — a decision that came in the wake of the and his family over his commentary during the ABC's coverage of King Charles' coronation.
Grant was a guest during one segment of the coverage — which ran for eight hours — and said the crown represented the invasion and theft of Aboriginal land.
The one-hour segment in which he participated sparked 1,832 complaints from the public, triggering an investigation by the ABC's independent ombudsman.
On Thursday, it cleared the broadcaster of breaching editorial standards during the broadcaster's coverage.
Hundreds of those complaints consisted of racist attacks, told a senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
At the end of Q+A on Monday, Grant said: "To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say: If your aim was to hurt me, well, you've succeeded.
"I'm sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me so much, to target me and my family, to make threats against me."
Stan Grant. Source: Getty / ANDREW GUO/PR IMAGE
But no specific facts were disputed and the complaints focused on a perceived lack of alternative views.
"It is distorting to see the approximately 40-plus minutes in isolation from the coverage as a whole," ABC News said in response to the ombudsman's investigation.
"While the program canvassed difficult topics it was at all times conducted respectfully ... there were no errors of accuracy."
Ombudsman Fiona Cameron found the discussion was newsworthy and legitimate in the context of the ABC's broader coronation coverage and the broadcast did not breach the corporation's editorial standards.
But she found there were clearly instances where the footage being presented of events in London did not relate to the critical nature of the panel discussion in Australia.
That was "jarring and distracting" for some of the audience, she found.
Mr Anderson has apologised to Grant, saying his experiences since the broadcast have been "distressing and confronting".
