Inside the bombshell ABC Four Corners documentary set to explode underneath Channel Seven – and who has spoken to reporter Louise Milligan
Former and current Seven Network employees have hit out at management following a series of controversies, with one describing it as one of the ‘most soul-destroying places to work’.
The television station’s work culture is once again in the spotlight thanks to an episode of ABC’s popular Four Corners program airing next Monday. The episode is titled ‘Don’t Speak’ and will be hosted by reporter Louise Milligan.
More than 200 employees were interviewed for the program, including Amber Harrison, whose affair with former CEO Tim Worner made headlines after she was fired for alleged credit card misuse.
“I can’t comment because I’m silenced for life,” Ms Harrison told Daily Mail Australia, citing a confidentiality agreement. “But Louise Milligan isn’t, and she’s normally the one who exposes injustice on Four Corners.”
Other former staff members who spoke on the programme included veteran WA journalist Mark Gibson. In a trailer for the episode, he calls Seven a “very dysfunctional family” and the “third, fourth, fifth chance club”.
Regional reporter Olivia Babb, who most recently worked for Seven in Toowoomba and Tamworth, played a key role in the promo.
She asks herself, “How can they sleep at night?” and “They shouldn’t be in business if that’s what they’re doing to young women.”
Ms. Babb posted on LinkedIn last week that she was looking for work.
Channel Seven regional reporter Olivia Babb speaks on camera about the network on ABC’s Four Corners program for an episode airing on Monday
Former Seven Network personal assistant Amber Harrison (pictured) made headlines after her affair with ex-CEO Tim Worner was made public. She appears on Monday’s Four Corners
The ABC summary reads: ‘Channel Seven bills itself as a family network, but a Four Corners investigation found it is a ‘second chance club’ for older men, described as a ‘degrading, soul-destroying’ workplace.
‘Allegations of sexism, exploitation and extreme bullying at the network are widespread and staff have been hospitalised, in some extreme cases unable to work or suicidal.
‘Many employees have filed legal claims against the network and many former employees have been muzzled with non-disclosure agreements.’
The major problems the broadcaster has faced in recent months started with the Spotlight scandal.
Taylor Auerbach, a former producer for rival 60 Minutes, alleged in federal court as part of Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation lawsuit that Spotlight paid for cocaine and sex workers for the rapist to secure an interview with him.
But even before that, the troubles were brewing, when the network’s owners took a controversial stand by backing former soldier Ben Roberts Smith in his libel case against The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, after they accused him of war crimes.
Roberts-Smith lost the case but has appealed the ruling. However, Seven’s owner Kerry Stokes agreed to pay both sides’ legal costs, estimated at around $35 million, to prevent the publication of some 8,600 internal emails about the case.
The Seven Network has been faced with a series of controversies in recent months
In addition, Seven paid an undisclosed but ‘significant’ sum to a man it twice wrongly named on air as the perpetrator of the Bondi Junction bombing, in a particularly embarrassing error.
Recently, Seven West’s new CEO, Jeff Howard, has been laying off staff on a massive scale as part of a $100 million cost-cutting exercise. Media reports have said that the atmosphere at Seven resembled that of a “funeral.”
One of the network’s most senior journalists, Robert Ovadia, was also fired for alleged “inappropriate behavior” related to emails he sent, but no formal complaint was ever filed.
Daily Mail Australia reported that manipulated images were believed to be the cause of the case.
His resignation – he denies any wrongdoing and is going to the Fair Work Commission – is reportedly the result of Four Corners’ investigation into Monday’s episode.
Seven Queensland celebrities, newsreader Sharyn Ghidella and weatherman Paul Burt, were also recently fired.
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Seven Network for comment.