An ABC Four Corners investigation has revealed numerous instances of gender discrimination, disability discrimination, sexual harassment and physical abuse within Seven’s newsrooms across Australia over the last 10 years and up until just a few months ago.
The hour-long program started with the story of young female reporter Amy Taeuber. Her family alleged that she had been sexually harassed by male colleagues in Seven offices. However, because of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) signed with the network, she was unable to talk about what led to her signing an NDA.
“It’s frustrating because there’s a lot I could say,” said Taeuber.
“It’s not a nice feeling to be silenced.”
The ABC spoke with employment lawyer Josh Bornstein who is representing several former current and former Seven employees.
“This is an industry that Me Too forgot,” said Bornstein.
According to Four Corners, which said it had spoken to more than 200 people as part of its investigation, there are three current discrimination cases brought by Seven employees against the network in the Sydney news division alone. However, while some current and former staff were able to go on the record for the program, it said that many more were gagged by NDAs.
“What the NDAs do is mask the reality of a brutal workplace culture in which women particularly are mistreated very badly and routinely. It’s an unusually brutal culture. I haven’t seen anything like it,” said Bornstein.
It then moved to the well-known and much-pontificated accusations surrounding former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach in his attempts to secure Bruce Lehrmann for an exclusive interview.
Auerbach was said to use his boss Mark Llewllyn’s company card to purchase Thai massages, expensive dinners, sex workers and cocaine to secure an interview with former Liberal party staffer Bruce Lehrmann after he was alleged to have raped fellow former Liberal employee Brittany Higgins. At the time, Lehrmann was suing Higgins, Channel 10 and 10 host Lisa Wilkinson for defamation. He has since been found guilty on the balance of probabilities in a civil court that he did rape Higgins.
However, Four Corners said that rather than exalt Auerbach as a star producer, Llewllyn would send abusive messages to Auerbach. For instance, he once sent a message asking why Jewish Auerbach was wearing the “Holocaust jim jams” when he arrived at work wearing a striped shirt. He also referred to Aurebach as a “c*nt” in messages.
“A narrative has been created that is simply untrue,” Llewellyn said in a statement released to The Australian. “That narrative has now been accepted by many as fact.”
Llewellyn said messages given to Four Corners had been selectively chosen and were part of a mutual joke Auerbach had instigated. “I do not know if ABC is aware of this, but Taylor certainly is,” he said.
“We shared a similar and occasionally warped sense of humour while laughing at our many flaws and dealing with long hours and deadlines. But to suggest this was anything other than comic exaggeration is wrong,” he added.
But there was more still.
One anonymous female journalist who was suing the network for a variety of reasons, including harassment from a camerman.
“That f**ker scares me and is most uncomfortable to work with… he’s creepy and inappropriate,” she told her boss.
That same boss, the journalist claims, ordered her not to wear glasses on air because the network news director told him that the glasses make her “look like f*cking Buddy Holly”.
She also said that when she refused to approach the husband of a mother who jumped off a cliff with her toddler, a manager threatened to send a reporter who was seven months pregnant. She also alleged that on more than 20 occasions, she had to hand her story over to a male reporter after working late into the night on traumatic stories.
Perhaps the most shocking allegation was that one junior female reporter in its Brisbane office ran in front of a car outside the network’s office at Mt Coot-tha, before throwing herself down a hill because of her treatment.
“She says she was working extremely long hours and constantly rostered on weekends for a base salary just above the minimum wage. She says she began to suffer from crippling anxiety and decided to resign, but she was told the company wouldn’t allow it,” ABC reporter Louise Milligan said, recounting the woman’s experience.
In a statement, Seven West Media (SWM) said it “notes the issues raised by the ABC’s Four Corners program. While we are clearly concerned about allegations of poor behaviour and any mistreatment of employees, a number of matters raised represent old issues that have been well aired and dealt with, in some cases many years ago.
“A number of people who have displayed behaviour not reflective of SWM’s values have already been removed from the organisation.
“We encourage all SWM team members to call out any behaviour that does not reflect our values. Whistle-blower protections are in place and are regularly re-emphasised with all staff.
“We have a great team at SWM and the actions of some individuals do not reflect the values, behaviour and attitude of the business as a whole, which is home to some of the best, hardest working and most passionate media professionals in Australia. Our focus is to build a stronger culture that enables our great people to thrive, and where unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated.
Seven’s new chief executive, Jeff Howard, pre-emptively apologised to staff on Friday in advance of the episode’s airing according to the Nine-owned Sydney Morning Herald.
In an all-staff email, Howard said he expected the episode would largely relate to historical matters, some of which had already been “well-ventilated”.
