Police asked a disabled man to leave the foyer of the ABC at Southbank in Melbourne during a protest against the axing of the disability website, Ramp Up.
About 20 people held a protest outside the building.
Some of the protesters entered the foyer and security called police when a 39-year-old man in a wheelchair refused to leave.
Dr George Taleporos said he wanted to voice his concerns directly to management.
“I’ve just been escorted out of the ABC premises by the police, I was hoping to have a say to the ABC execs that they should not cut our only voice at the national broadcaster,” Dr Taleporos said.
“We think it’s unfortunate that people with disabilities had to be the first to suffer and we think that the decision should be reversed.”
Ramp Up was created in 2010 to give a greater voice to Australians who live with a disability.
The site was shut down on Friday due to Federal Government budget cuts announced in May.
The founding editor of Ramp Up, Stella Young, said the protest was encouraging.
“For many years we’ve been really downtrodden and disempowered, and it’s really nice to see people fired up and objecting to our voice being taken away,” Ms Young said.
“I think that the protesters should have been treated like any other protesters and they would have called the police on able-bodied protesters, so I think that is entirely fair.”
A spokesperson for the ABC said the network would continue to cover disability issues.
“(Ramp Up) will remain online as a resource for the disability community, and current comments will remain while new comments on articles will be closed,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“Stella Young, who edited the website, will remain with the ABC as regular contributor to The Drum, online, radio and television.
“The ABC will cover disability issues in an integrated way across all its platforms, reaching a much bigger audience – a strategy supported by the Department of Social Services.”
The statement said Ramp Up was “established under a grant from the then FaHCSIA department in 2009 to provide a forum for people with disabilities”, which was extended in 2012.
“The ABC has disputed assertions by the Government that the grants were allocated as ‘seed funding’,” the statement said.
“The ABC has never indicated that it would take over funding responsibility for the site.”
Read the full story... (off-site)- Author:
- ABC News
- Date published:
- Mon 30th Jun, 2014