SBS reporter sacked over Anzac Day tweets given permission to sue broadcaster
Scott McIntyre
Sports reporter Scott McIntyre who was sacked by SBS after tweeting a series of anti-Anzac messages on Anzac Day has been given permission to sue the broadcaster for unlawful dismissal.
The ruling was handed down yesterday by the Fair Work Commission with the commissioner citing the right to freedom of speech that diggers “fought for” as a reason for his decision.
McIntyre hit headlines in April with a string of tweets which called into question the role of the Anzac soldiers in World War One, including one which said “remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these ‘brave’ Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan”.
McIntyre retained the Maurice Blackburn lawyers after arbitration between him and SBS failed.
According to a report in The Australian SBS tried to argue McIntyre should not be allowed to sue as his case had come too late.
However, in his report the Commissioner wrote: “It is perhaps sadly ironic that many members of the Australian Defence Force lost their lives in the earnest pursuit of the protection of rights and freedoms such as the access to a fair hearing which the applicant is entitled to obtain.”
He also noted the “elevated level of tension” between the parties because of the media scrutiny of events following the tweets.
After he was sacked a petition was started for the football reporter to be reinstated, although it managed just over 3,000 of the target of 5,000.
SBS has declined to comment.
In another tweet McIntyre wrote: “Wonder if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered”.
McIntyre’s tweets from Anzac Day
Still trying hard to remember exactly when ANZACs were in Japan…
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Poor Scotty must be out of funds
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” was handed down yesterday by the Fair Work Commission”??
You make it sound official.
The FWC is an unelected, non-judicial pension-fund for Labor Party luvvies and retirees which Australia can’t get rid of (yet), and none of its decisions can be taken seriously or credibly, and never will.
It represents nobody but the unions who extort money from corporations to prop up their puppets in the Parliament.
This decision amplifies that disgrace.
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SBS stumbles along from crises to crises. The only question now will be how big the damages are. This is a pretty clear cut case of unfair dismissal.
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SBS about to pay the price for getting swept up in the Centenary of Anzac hype and making a sacrifice to News Corp and the shock jocks.
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