ABC radio and television news bulletins face even further scutiny in coming months – this time for any gender bias.

A University of Southern Queensland journalism lecturer will monitor ABC bulletins for ‘gender bias’ during its coverage of the Athens’ Olympics.

Dianne Jones wants to know how much time and priority is given to sportsmen and women. She says she did a similar study during the Sydney Olmypics:

“On the basis of what I found in 2000, the ABC gets a very good mark for its coverage because there was pretty much equal coverage across the genders.

“However, when you look more closely, Cathy Freeman is the reason why women received almost as much coverage as men.”