ABC has footage in mouth disease, says irate Martin

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By AMANDA MEADE, 17/3/1999

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RAY Martin has accused the ABC of breaching an undertaking never to broadcast footage of a confrontation between the Nine network star and sometime ABC comic John Safran. On Monday night and again yesterday afternoon, the ABC's Media Watch showed material filmed last year for a pilot starring the former Race Around the World contestant.

"I have asked the ABC how was it that last year my wife was apologised to by senior management and I was told that film was owned by the ABC and wouldn't surface," Martin said yesterday.

The airing of the footage shocked Martin and his wife Dianne because ABC management had apologised for Safran's behaviour after Martin contacted corporate affairs manager Roger Grant.

Martin said he had been told by acting head of television Claire Henderson that Safran had behaved contrary to ABC guidelines by entering his property through deception.

Media Watch host Richard Ackland said last night the material was run to "demonstrate a point about thin-skinned journalists" and insisted it did not breach editorial guidelines.

Martin said he did not "hate" Ackland, as suggested in The Australian yesterday, but that he had been guilty of hypocrisy and had used the footage as a "publicity stunt". "It was only half the story," he said. "Most people who know the details of what Safran did are appalled."

He said he was upset because Safran had lingered outside his house for two days, rifled though his garbage and filmed his house and his son's school.

Martin denied he was unable to take criticism or that his former show A Current Affair was intrusive. "I don't think A Current Affair intrudes any more than The Australian newspaper or magazines in this country."