Sacked Channel Seven reporter Robert Ovadia has described Seven West Media as an “evil company” and claimed its “propaganda unit” is seeking to destroy his reputation.
The network dismissed these comments as “outlandish complaints” in a statement on Tuesday evening, saying it was “confident its position on this matter will be upheld by the Courts”.
The veteran journalist was fired in June after Seven conducted an internal investigation into allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.
Ovadia has filed a wrongful dismissal claim against the Seven Network and Seven West Media’s news and editor-in-chief, Anthony De Ceglie.
In its Tuesday statement, the Seven Network accused Ovadia of “serious misconduct following the sending of inappropriate emails to a 23-year-old news producer and other employees”.
They said that in dismissing Ovadia, the network was “discharging its obligations to prevent sexual harassment at work, including as more recently expanded under recent legislation”.
“Mr Ovadia was trained about these new legislative obligations by Seven and failed to comply with them,” a network spokesperson claimed.
An additional 13 women have since come forward with complaints about the 51-year-old’s conduct, according to federal court documents. Ovadia has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
The spokesperson said some examples of the alleged “inappropriate emails” had been provided to Ovadia and his lawyers, and that Seven had “not chosen to make further even more inappropriate emails public at this stage”, in respect of the complainants’ privacy.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Ovadia lashed out at Seven. “I can be crass, I can be blunt, I can be obnoxious, my humour is dark – 20 years surrounded by trauma and danger will do all of that to you – but I do NOT mistreat women,” he wrote.
“I’ll expect more smear over the coming months as this evil company (in whose service I risked my life and safety many times) now seeks to destroy my reputation further.
In the post, Ovadia urged people to scroll through “a few recent interactions with women I’ve worked with [versus] Seven’s Propaganda Unit intent on scaring me away from court”. Ovadia also published a death threat he said he had received.
In documents filed in court in late August, Ovadia’s lawyers denied that their client’s conduct amounted to sexual harassment or serious misconduct and alleged he was unlawfully sacked.
Seven Network’s defence will be filed on 12 September.
