Recently media personality Kyle Sandilands co-hosted a segment on his Austereo nationally-syndicated radio programme 'The Kyle and Jackie O Show' in which a 14-year-old girl was attached to a polygraph (lie detector) machine and asked questions about her sexual activity, at the behest of her mother. Questioning by the mother led to the girl revealing she had been raped as a 12-year-old. Instead of bringing the interrogation to an immediate end, Sandilands continued to question the girl about her sexual activity. It is our view that this behaviour on Sandilands' part was not only reprehensible and unprofessional in the extreme, it is in contravention of the Commercial Radio Codes of Practice and Guidelines, Code 1.5 (a): 1.5 (a) All program content must meet contemporary standards of decency, having regard to the likely characteristics of the audience of the licensee's service. Austereo's response to this was to place the programme in recess 'until we have completed an across-the-networks review of the principles and protocols of our interaction with our audience'. The signatories of this petition take the view that Austereo's actions are insufficient. Further, we believe Mr Sandilands is unfit to broadcast in any capacity in the Australian media, as his actions have shown a complete and repeated disregard for the standards laid out in the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) codes. We strongly recommend that Mr Sandilands' employment be terminated immediately, with a further recommendation that his co-host, Jackie O, also face stern disciplinary action. A copy of this petition will be sent to ACMA, pending your response and further action in this matter.

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