ABC managing director David Anderson has apologised to journalist Stan Grant after he stepped away from his position as host of the Q&A program, citing exhaustion with persistent racial abuse.
“Stan has our full support. And he has always had our full support,” Mr Anderson wrote in an e-mail to ABC employees.
“Stan makes an enormous contribution to conversations of national importance.”
Grant made the choice to go away Q&A final week after racism towards him intensified following his involvement within the public broadcaster’s protection of the King’s coronation.
The veteran correspondent was invited to take part in an ABC TV dialogue on coronation day, throughout which he identified that the crown represents the invasion and theft of Aboriginal land.
In his e-mail to ABC employees, Mr Anderson mentioned he agreed with a advice from the ABC’s Indigenous advisory committee to overview how the broadcaster responds to racism in direction of employees.
He mentioned anti-ABC reporting from some business media shops had been “sustained and vitriolic”.
“This has real-world consequences for ABC presenters and journalists who are personally attacked and vilified,” he wrote.
“How the ABC supports people in these moments is important. Stan Grant has stated that he has not felt publicly supported. For this, I apologise to Stan.
“The ABC endeavours to assist its employees within the unlucky moments when there’s exterior abuse directed at them.”
Grant last week expressed frustration at the ABC’s executives, saying not a single one had publicly refuted the lies that have been written and spoken about him.
“I do not maintain any particular person accountable; that is an institutional failure,” he said.
While the ABC’s news director Justin Stevens had been a “assist and a consolation” according to Mr Grant, the national broadcaster had its own legacy of racism.
In a statement last week Mr Stevens said the broadcaster stood by Mr Grant and the abuse was “abhorrent and unacceptable”.
Threats against Grant had been referred to police while a formal complaint had also been lodged with Twitter.
The ABC Ombudsman would examine editorial complaints relating to the panel, Mr Stevens mentioned.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
