Pederasty (radio program)

{{Use Australian English|date=January 2025}}

"Pederasty" is a program broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National network on 14 July 1975. Hosted by Richard Neville and produced by Allan Ashbolt as an episode of Lateline (unrelated to the later ABC TV series), the show featured a "frank" interview with "three men in their thirties who admitted sex relations with boys, and a teenage boy who said he had been involved in such relationships since he was 12".{{cite news |title=Police get complaint over ABC program |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald/162858572/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 July 1975}}{{cite news |title=Tape of program for vice squad |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-abc-pederasty/162858148/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=16 July 1975}}{{cite news |title=Radical giant of Australian broadcasting |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/radical-giant-of-australian-broadcasting-20050615-gdliic.html |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=15 June 2005}} The ABC's official description of the program was: "Pederasty, as described by the Penguin English Dictionary, is the homosexual relationship of a man with a boy. The subject usually creates feelings of revulsion and disgust within most people. The issues raised by such relationships are discussed by three pederasts".{{cite book |last1=Inglis |first1=Kenneth Stanley |title=This is the ABC : the Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932-1983 |date=1983 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |location=Carlton, VIC |page=381}}

One letter to the editor published in The Sydney Morning Herald described the adult men interviewed as "chuckling" as they described "waiting outside playgrounds to seduce young boys".{{cite news |title=ABC head asked to resign |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-abc-pederasty/162858012/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=23 July 1975}} Another commented that Neville "clearly let it be seen that he held that male adults who committed such acts on boys corrupted or exploited them, and he tried to get the men to admit this".{{cite news |title=Pondering an odd omission |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-abc-pederasty/162867341/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=24 July 1975}}

A tape of the program was turned over to police by Fred Nile, who objected to the content. Peter Nixon of the then-National Country Party also called for a public inquiry into the ABC in the program's aftermath.{{cite news |title=Parliamentarian calls for public inquiry into ABC |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-pederasty-abc-program-1975/162859910/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Age |date=23 July 1975}} Ashbolt told The National Times that "“we can discuss on Lateline ideas that three years ago would have been regarded not only as heretical but subversive."{{cite book |last1=Cater |first1=Nick |title=The lucky culture and the rise of an Australian ruling class |date=2013 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=Sydney, NSW |page=215 |url=https://archive.org/details/luckyculturerise0000cate}} Asked about the program, ABC chairman Richard Downing initially commented that he had not heard it himself but that the ABC's general intention is to "try to inform people about what (is) happening so that they might be forewarned and forearmed". Later, he added: "In general, men will sleep with young boys and that's the sort of thing the community ought to know about".{{cite news |title=ABC Licence |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sydney-morning-herald-abc-pederasty/162857524/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=19 July 1975}} The ABC's ultimate response was to introduce guidelines around the use of "four-letter words" and "crude expressions" while rejecting any new guidelines on program content, with Downing commenting that he wanted ABC staff to be "adventurous and imaginative (but not) titillating".{{cite news |title=Guide for ABC on 'crude' language |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110659267 |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=The Canberra Times |date=22 September 1975}}

In 2016, Liberal senator Eric Abetz asked the ABC in Parliament if they were considering an apology for "Pederasty". Their response was: "No. The ABC considers child abuse is a legitimate news and current affairs subject and it will continue to cover it where relevant in accordance with its Editorial and Charter responsibilities."{{cite web |title=Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, Answers to Senate Estimates Questions on Notice, Additional Estimates Hearings February 2016, Communications Portfolio, Australian Broadcasting Corporation |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/Committees/ec_ctte/estimates/add_1516/communications%20and%20arts/q54.PDF |website=Australian Parliament |access-date=13 January 2025}}