Aspects of Hugh Marks’s record as chief executive of the Nine Entertainment Company raise questions about his suitability for the position of managing director of the ABC, to which he has just been appointed.
Those aspects concern political independence, internal culture and news leadership, all issues of pressing concern at the ABC.
On political independence, during Marks’s tenure as chief of Nine he hosted a $10,000-a-head fundraising dinner for the Liberal Party at which the guests of honour were the then prime minister, Scott Morrison, and communications minister Paul Fletcher. The event was organised by the Liberal Party’s fundraising arm, the Australian Business Network.
