The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, met with union members a week after they passed a no confidence motion against him over the broadcaster’s alleged failure to protect staff from external attacks on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
At a meeting of more than 200 ABC union members last week, staff said that the broadcaster’s leadership team had failed “to defend the integrity of the ABC and staff from attacks”.
The managing director held talks with ABC union staff on Monday which the public broadcaster and the union described as being of a positive and constructive nature. The meeting is understood to have taken about 90 minutes, with issues raised including the organisation’s social media policy and support for diverse staff.
“The ABC has so far had two meetings with the ABC house committee and the discussions have been positive and constructive,” an ABC spokesperson said. “We’re all on the same side of wanting a positive and culturally safe environment for all employees.”
A spokesperson for the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said it was a positive first step.
“It is in the managing director’s hands to begin to fix these problems at the ABC and union members have laid out a five-point plan for the path forward, because we all want an ABC that can operate properly,” the spokesperson said.
“Staff are determined to resolve these issues so that all ABC journalists can feel safe at work, that they have management backing when they come under external attack and that the ABC’s reputation for reporting without fear or favour can be maintained.”
The fallout from staff was kicked off after an unlawful termination claim was lodged by the journalist Antoinette Lattouf against the ABC on 22 December. Lattouf said she was dismissed from a fill-in hosting role on ABC radio after she shared a Human Rights Watch post about the Israel-Gaza conflict on her personal Instagram account.
Reports emerged on 16 January that pro-Israel lawyers had coordinated complaints against her in a WhatsApp group chat.
The ABC news director, Justin Stevens, said in an email to staff last week that members of the public were entitled to make complaints about the broadcaster, but as director of news he followed the ABC complaints process, and the ABC worked hard “constantly to defend our journalists against unjustified attacks, often multiple times in a day” both publicly and privately.
“We’ve lodged complaints with social media platforms and other media outlets over the publication of abusive content,” he said. “We complain on behalf of employees over their treatment in external media stories.”
The national broadcaster said on Tuesday it had a range of initiatives already under way, including Stevens leading listening sessions with culturally diverse staff and the ABC journalist Bridget Brennan coordinating a project to examine international best practice on providing support in culturally safe newsrooms.
There is also an upcoming ABC systems review led by Dr Terri Janke, as recommended by the Bonner committee – the primary advisory and representative body on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff – at the ABC, where staff will be encouraged to report experiences of racism.
A spokesperson for the ABC did not comment on whether ABC social media guidelines would be changed after the meeting with staff, but said the guidelines have been updated a number of times and no doubt would be again.
“However, the principle of protecting the ABC’s reputation, independence, impartiality and integrity will remain the same,” the spokesperson said.
