Triple J Defend Use Of Bali Nine Poll

National youth broadcaster triple j has defended the publication of a Roy Morgan Research poll on foreign powers' use of the death penalty after the Indonesian government cited its results as partial justification for the impending execution of Bali Nine smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

"It would be a dangerous precedent for journalists not to report these things because they are fearful of how politicians may react," Hack host Tom Tilley said in a statement on the matter on yesterday evening's program, explaining that publication of such opinion polling is common practice among media outlets.

Although still openly referred to by the station on their website as an "exclusive" poll carried out "for Hack", a triple j representative later told theMusic.com.au that the poll had not been commissioned specifically for the program, and that it had been offered to several other outlets, with Hack merely being given first access to the results.

However, as the ABC now reports, triple j was indeed actively involved in the construction of the poll, with Tilley explaining on Hack yesterday that the station approached Roy Morgan with the specific suggestion they conduct the poll, and provided potential questions to be used by the researchers before the program published the results on its 27 January broadcast, when it was again referred to as an exclusive Hack poll.

The poll had asked whether Australians convicted of drug smuggling in countries that carry capital punishment should have to face their penalty, with 52% of the 2123 respondents replying in the affirmative — a slim majority, but enough for Indonesian officials to claim that most Australians support the death sentence. Chan and Sukumaran's supporters are claiming that the poll has damaged what chance the pair had left at receiving last-minute clemency for their crimes, especially with execution apparently imminent.