The broadcaster’s sudden exit from the ABC has forced an internal reckoning. Now other ABC journalists are sharing their experiences of racism and demanding change.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.Betrayed. That’s how Wiradjuri journalist and broadcaster Stan Grant said he felt watching his employer’s coverage of the Queen’s funeral in September last year.
But nowhere has Grant’s decision to take indefinite leave, and the reasons behind it, been more keenly felt than among former and current ABC staff. The latter walked off the job on Monday to rally in support of Grant.that Grant’s explosive column “I was exhausted after my stories were published because it took so much to get them across the line … it started to chip away at my confidence and self-worth,” they said.
“It was such a traumatic work experience for me,” they said. “It’s taken the entire second half of my career to unpack what happened. Shah told this masthead that he wasn’t naive about the nature of social media, and that it was never that which bothered him. “It was the constant attacks in the rest of the media,” he said. “There wasn’t a week in two years I wasn’t being blamed for the complete collapse in local radio, but management never backed me. I felt abandoned and when you’re not allowed to respond, that takes a toll. That’s what Stan Grant was really saying.
Hing told this masthead that while “there are places I’ve worked that have been much worse”, there were issues unique to the ABC. One, he said, was that the ABC’s charter is used against it as a weapon.Michelle Grace Hunder While understandably hesitant to delve into specific incidents during her time at the ABC, Boney said: “I see the pain Stan has gone through – and it’s not too far removed from how difficult it’s been for me at times.”
In 2020, a letter signed by more than 80 ABC staffers was sent to ABC management, including managing director David Anderson and chair of the board Ita Buttrose. The letter expressed concern about the organisation’s failure to build an inclusive workplace. An ABC spokesperson said that more information on the outcome of the review would be released in a few weeks, and that it had fed into the organisation’s diversity plan. But they said the review had already led to some actions including the creation of internal staff forums to discuss racism and the rollout of additional training for both journalists and managers.
Stan Grant stepped away from his role as host of Q+A after sustaining persistent racial abuse online.“The issue of Stan Grant leaving his role was predominantly caused by non-ABC mastheads writing headline after nasty headline about Grant’s coverage of the coronation.
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