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A self-styled public crusader has defied the ABC by publishing on YouTube an 'abhorrent and deeply harmful' radio segment about paedophiles which had not been broadcast for 50 years.
Economist and former political advisor John Adams had been frustrated the national broadcaster would not allow him to share the audio, which he obtained only for his private use.
The segment featured three self-confessed Australian pederasts aged in their 30s as well as a teenager who discussed engaging in sexual activities with much older men.
It was aired on the defunct Lateline program on July 14, 1975 and hosted by the late writer and social commentator Richard Neville.
According to Mr Adams, the Lateline segment - titled 'Pederasty' - included 'several shocking and despicable statements and admissions' and has not been re-broadcast in the past 50 years.
Neville was best known as the co-founder of the counter-culture magazine OZ which was launched in Sydney in 1963, followed by a London version three years later when he was in his mid-20s.
In his 1970 book Power Play, Neville boasted of having a 'hurricane f***' with a 'moderately attractive, intelligent, cherubic, fourteen-year-old girl from a nearby London comprehensive school'.
Among the content of the Lateline program was a proposition that Australian boys as young as 12 were able to give rational consent to sexual acts with men aged in their 30s and 40s.
The program also made a distinction between 'paedophilia' as being the sexual assault of a child by a man and 'pederasty' involving a homosexual relationship between a man and a boy.
The pederasts on the panel admitted using bribes to seduce children and loitering around school playgrounds to solicit young boys.
One admitted that as a 12-year-old he had abused a boy aged three, prompting laughter from the others. Another admitted having 12 boys on a sexual roster.
There was discussion about young boys being 'physically delicious' and of seeking those with faces of 'angelic beauty'.
The segment was met with immediate public outrage.
Morals campaigner and former NSW politician Fred Nile provided a tape of the program to police and federal Country Party MP Peter Nixon called for an inquiry.
ABC chairman Richard Downing said at the time the broadcaster's intention was to 'try to inform people about what [is] happening so that they might be forewarned and forearmed'.
He later said, 'In general, men will sleep with young boys and that's the sort of thing the community ought to know about'.
Mr Adams obtained a copy of the recording in July 2023 from the ABC's archives department after signing a personal use release form.
He agreed 'that the above-listed segment shall be used for personal viewing only in a private setting' and would not 'be included in whole or in part in further publications, sound recordings or media projects'.
He further agreed 'that the material shall not be broadcast or communicated to the public by any means, including but not limited to communication via the internet or any social media platform... '.
Mr Adams has now breached that undertaking by broadcasting the segment on his YouTube channel, In the Interests of the People, on Monday at 5pm (AEDT).
In response to Mr Adams's threat to publish the audio, the ABC had said it would 'act to enforce the obligation not to publish this material if our strict terms are not met'.
'It was a mistake by the ABC in 1975 to ever conduct this interview,' an ABC spokeswoman said.
'The interview does not meet the ABC's editorial policies and given the risk of harm to the community it would be inappropriate to republish it.
'The ABC has not authorised the republication or broadcast of the program and given its subject matter we maintain it should not be republished by anyone else.
'The content was accessed via the ABC’s Community Access program under the agreement that it would be used in a private setting only.'
Mr Adams said he posted the audio on YouTube after writing to the ABC's legal department in August requesting a release from his previous agreement 'in order to inform the Australian people of our country's shameful and evil history'.
The ABC's manager for library services denied that request, stating the Pederasty segment was not available on any ABC platform.
In October 2018, Liberal senator Eric Abetz had raised concerns about the segment in a question to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications.
The ABC replied: 'The ABC has no records of the interview, but according to contemporary reports the then ABC radio program Lateline interviewed three "self-confessed pederasts" in 1975.'
Mr Adams wrote to Communications Minister Anika Wells in August seeking her intervention 'in exposing the abhorrent and deeply harmful acts committed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1975'.
'Given that I was able to secure the recording from the ABC in 2023, I find the ABC's 2018 statement to the Senate Committee both preposterous and untruthful,' he wrote.
'Given the above and the growing public interest in the Lateline broadcast, I am asking you to exercise your ministerial power...and direct the ABC to publish the radio interview on all of its digital platforms for the Australian people to listen.'
Mr Adams received a response in October from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.
'The ABC has advised that the 1975 Lateline interview does not meet its current editorial standards, and that the ABC has decided to not approve the release of the program for republication or broadcast,' it said.
'Given ABC's editorial independence, this decision is a matter for the ABC.'
Mr Adams told the Daily Mail he would publish the segment on his YouTube channel because he felt he was left with no option, and it was in the public interest.
'After exhausting all political and legal options, I am going to breach the legal conditions imposed on me by the ABC to expose Australia's dark history which I believe is in the public interest,' he said.
'The culture of corruption and concealment in Australia, especially around paedophilia, is so disgusting that a circuit breaker is needed.'