Australian Broadcasting Corporation amends report on genocide scholars’ vote after overstating level of support for Gaza resolution

ABC has issued a correction after multiple outlets — Radio News, News Channel and News Digital — mischaracterized the voting figures behind a resolution from the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) declaring Israeli actions in Gaza as genocide.

Initial reports on September 2 said a majority of the association’s 500 members had voted in favor of the resolution. In reality, participation was far lower. Only 28 percent of members took part in the ballot, of whom 86 percent voted in favor. The correction, published a day later, makes clear that the resolution passed with the backing of fewer than one-quarter of the group’s total membership.

The distinction is critical. The framing of “a majority of scholars” suggested overwhelming professional consensus on one of the most politically and morally charged questions in international law. The actual figures, while showing strong support among those who voted, represent a far narrower base.

Errors of scale such as this can materially alter public understanding. By implying that hundreds of genocide scholars had endorsed the resolution, the reports risked magnifying its authority in diplomatic and legal debates where every claim of consensus carries weight.

ABC’s correction clarifies the numbers but, as with many amendments, it arrives after the original reports have already circulated widely across broadcast and digital platforms. In an environment where allegations of genocide are contested in international courts and weaponized in political discourse, misstatements of support — even if unintentional — risk inflaming narratives on both sides.

The correction restores accuracy, but the wider lesson is stark. In conflicts defined as much by perception as by fact, reporting the scale of endorsement can matter as much as reporting the vote itself. Once overstated, consensus is difficult to scale back.