The managing director of the ABC, David Anderson, has apologised to Stan Grant after the host said he felt unsupported by the national broadcaster in the face of racist abuse.
Grant said on Friday he was standing down as host of Q+A after receiving “grotesque racist abuse” that escalated after he spoke on the ABC about the impact of colonialism ahead of the coronation of King Charles.
“Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported,” Anderson said.
“For this, I apologise to Stan. The ABC endeavours to support its staff in the unfortunate moments when there is external abuse directed at them.”
In an email to staff obtained by Guardian Australia, Anderson took aim at commercial media for “sustained and vitriolic” anti-ABC reporting.
“The ABC is never above scrutiny or criticism,” he said. “However, the nature of the anti-ABC reporting from some commercial media outlets is sustained and vitriolic. This has real-world consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are personally attacked and vilified.”
Media data provided to the Guardian found that there were more than 150 mentions of the ABC’s coronation coverage by the Australian and Sky News in the two weeks since the broadcast.
Anderson said he has agreed to launch an investigation of ABC responses to racism affecting ABC staff.
“The Chair and Deputy Chair of the ABC’s Bonner Committee have asked me to conduct a review to investigate and make recommendations about ABC responses to racism affecting ABC staff, and what we can do better to support staff who face it,” he said.
Anderson said he was “dismayed” that Grant had been exposed to such “sickening behaviour”.
“The experiences of ABC presenter and commentator Stan Grant following our coverage of the Coronation of King Charles III have been distressing and confronting for the ABC, as they should be for the entire media industry and the broader community.
“Stan has our full support. And he has always had our full support. Stan makes an enormous contribution to conversations of national importance.”
Indigenous broadcaster NITV announced on Sunday it had decided to take a break from Twitter because of the racism and hate on the platform experienced daily. “It’s just not a place we want or need to be during a time when things are heavy enough,” NITV said.
— NITV (@NITV) May 21, 2023
A spokesperson for SBS said the abuse had intensified in the lead-up to the referendum and a decision had been taken before Grant spoke out to stop interacting on Twitter.
In March the ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, admitted the broadcaster has “a way to go” in achieving diversity after Grant criticised the “entire white panel” on the ABC’s New South Wales election panel.
Three years ago Grant became the first Indigenous person to report a story on Four Corners in 59 years.
Four Corners is not the only ABC program which has had to face up to its lack of diversity. Insiders was criticised for inviting an all-white panel of political journalists to analyse the Black Lives Matter protests.
• This article was amended on 22 May 2023. An earlier version stated that the data about the number of mentions of the ABC’s coronation coverage by the Australian and Sky News in the two weeks since the broadcast was obtained from media monitoring firm Streem. We wish to clarify that the information was not provided to the Guardian by Streem but obtained from a third party source.
