What are the verbatim sources (videos/transcripts) of the statements attributed to Randa Abdel‑Fattah cited in media reports?
Executive summary
A close read of the supplied reporting shows that the media-attributed statements by Randa Abdel‑Fattah come from a small set of identifiable sources: a written statement to the BBC, an Instagram post and social-media statements reported by multiple outlets, an ABC panel appearance in May 2021 referenced by several outlets, and at least one recorded author interview/transcript (Between the Covers) used in coverage — but none of the provided articles supply a single consolidated verbatim transcript or video link for every contested line attributed to her [1] [2] [3] [4]. The public record in these reports is therefore a mix of direct quotes published by outlets and references to audio/video appearances whose full original recordings or complete transcripts are not supplied in the documents given [1] [4] [5].
1. The BBC statement: a written response cited by outlets
Several stories quote Abdel‑Fattah “in a statement to the BBC,” specifically rebutting claims that she had compared groups to “insects and vermin” and contextualising her critique of Friedman’s article; that phrasing appears as a direct quotation in the BBC report and is attributed to her written statement [1]. The BBC article is the named source for that quotation in the reporting supplied here, but the supplied excerpts do not reproduce a video or link to a full transcript of that BBC interview/statement beyond the quoted sentence [1].
2. Instagram and social‑media posts reported by Australian outlets
Multiple outlets say Abdel‑Fattah posted a statement on Instagram accusing Premier Peter Malinauskas of making “harmful public statements,” of suggesting she was a “terrorist sympathiser,” and of being “directly linked to the Bondi atrocity”; those phrases are reported as coming from her Instagram statement in coverage by The Guardian, SBS and ABC [6] [2] [5]. The articles reference the Instagram post as the primary source for those complaints but none of the supplied items reproduces the full Instagram text or links to the original post for verbatim verification within these documents [6] [2].
3. The ABC panel (May 27, 2021) and other broadcast appearances
News outlets cite Abdel‑Fattah’s past commentary on Israel and the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict, and Times of Israel and other reports specifically note her participation on an ABC panel on 27 May 2021 as a source of some earlier remarks [7] [3]. The Times of Israel and other pieces identify that broadcast appearance as evidentiary context, but the supplied snippets do not include a verbatim transcript or a direct video link to that ABC panel in which individual quoted lines could be checked here [7] [3].
4. Published interviews and readings: Between the Covers / Discipline material
At least one supplied source points to an existing interview/transcript: the Between the Covers conversation and transcript excerpt where Abdel‑Fattah discusses her novel Discipline and reads excerpts, which is a traceable written transcript quoted in coverage and available via that program’s transcript page [4]. That transcript contains verbatim passages of her reading and commentary — and represents a verifiable verbatim source within the supplied material — but it does not cover the full range of contentious political statements cited elsewhere by news outlets [4].
5. What the supplied reporting does not provide (and why it matters)
None of the provided articles includes a comprehensive archive of every quoted line or a consolidated list of video/transcript URLs for all statements ascribed to Abdel‑Fattah; instead they rely on isolated direct quotes (e.g., the BBC statement) and paraphrases of social‑media posts or past broadcast appearances without embedding full verbatim records in the items supplied [1] [6] [2] [4]. That reporting pattern leaves a factual gap: the exact verbatim source of each contested media quote — particularly those used to justify her temporary exclusion from Writers’ Week — cannot be fully reconstructed from the supplied documents alone [5] [8].
6. Conclusion and practical next steps for verification
The verbatim sources present in the supplied reporting are: the written statement to the BBC (quoted in the BBC piece), the Instagram statement reported by The Guardian/SBS/ABC, the ABC panel appearance of May 27, 2021 referenced by multiple outlets, and the Between the Covers transcript that includes a reading and commentary [1] [2] [7] [4]. To obtain complete verbatim transcripts or original videos for every line attributed to Abdel‑Fattah — and thereby verify the exact phrasing cited across media reports — one must locate the primary items (the BBC piece and original Instagram post, ABC broadcast recording or transcript, and the Between the Covers full transcript/video); those primary-source links or attachments are not embedded in the supplied reporting excerpts and so cannot be reproduced here from these documents alone [1] [5] [4].