4 9 employees who signed an open letter final November calling for Australian media to “help moral reporting on Israel and Palestine” have since left the organisation’s mastheads. Former metropolis reporter Najma Sambul introduced her resignation from The Age on X on June 24, following the departures of different signatories Miki Perkins, Abbir Dib and Max Walden. None talked about the letter of their posts saying their departures or new roles.
Crikey understands that 9’s response to the letter was a contributing issue to at the very least one of many journalists’ choice to depart.
The letter precipitated controversy throughout the media, significantly on the 9 mastheads, which imposed a ban on reporters who had signed it from masking the battle (a ban that lasted till Might 24 this 12 months). This led to “tense” conferences, with employees arguing that the ban opened the publication as much as accusations of “hypocrisy”, provided that editors for 9’s metro papers — together with then govt editor, now managing director of publishing Tory Maguire, Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields, Age editor Patrick Elligett and SMH/Age nationwide editor David King — had taken sponsored journeys to the world from pro-Israel teams and had not had any related situations positioned on their skill to cowl the battle.
One of many main calls the letter made, together with “[giving] sufficient protection to credible allegations of struggle crimes, genocide, ethnic cleaning and apartheid”, was for newsrooms to reveal when journalists had been on such journeys, and to reject them sooner or later.
“Various individuals are cognisant of the truth that [Shields and Maguire] have each attended Israel sponsored journeys/junkets … and the notion that has on our paper,” one journalist instructed Crikey on the time.
One other 9 journalist who signed the letter, talking to Crikey on the situation of anonymity, stated that there had been “nice unhappiness” amongst some employees over the writer’s “heavy handed” response to the letter, declaring that no different media organisation had imposed an “arbitrary” ban on journalists reporting on the problem.
In March, a be aware signed by King, Shields, Elligett and Maguire’s substitute as 9’s govt editor Luke McIlveen, was despatched to all publishing employees in response to the letter, making it clear that:
The editorial code of conduct’s existing section on impartiality will be expanded to make clear that the signing of open letters or petitions may constitute a breach of the code, and that signatories may be directed to undertake different work duties to avoid any perceived or actual conflict of interest.
The note did not mention sponsored trips.
We asked Nine whether there was any anxiety among management that this trend of departures might continue with other signatories, whether there was any concern about the impact on newsroom diversity caused by these departures, and whether any plans had been made to approach any similar letters or petitions differently in the future. A spokesperson declined to comment beyond the organisation’s previous statements on the matter.
Disclosure: Charlie Lewis is a signatory of the November 2023 open letter regarding the media’s coverage of Gaza.
