ABA head defends role in 'cash for comment' The head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) has defended writing a letter of support to Sydney radio announcer Alan Jones just four months before chairing an inquiry into 'cash for comment' allegations.
The ABC's Media Watch obtained a copy of the 1999 letter in which ABA chairman David Flint tells Mr Jones he has an extraordinary ability and expresses the opinions of the majority.
Professor Flint has told AM he did not know Mr Jones at the time he wrote the letter and did not feel the need to declare it at the time of the 'cash for comment' inquiry.
"The situation in Sydney and Australia is that in the area of the media you tend to know in some way of, [or] have had some contact with, the people involved in this sort of thing and that is not at all unusual," he said.
