Seven dealing with lawsuits, disputes and apologies ahead of ABC exposé tonight
Seven’s lawyers are busy sending legal letters to the ABC and fielding them from former employees, while CEO Jeff Howard has sent a lengthy email to staff regarding the pending Four Corners exposé.
ABC posted an incendiary 30-second trailer on Thursday morning for a Four Corners investigation into Seven’s workplace culture titled ‘Don’t Speak’, set to air on Monday night.
The trailer features numerous ex-Seven employees, including Today Tonight’s Mark Gibson, former Seven TV Toowoomba reporter Olivia Babb, and Amber Harrison – whose affair with former CEO Tim Worner was exposed after she breached confidentiality agreements signed in 2014, in which Seven paid $400,000 for her silence.
Harrison
Reporter Louise Milligan and the Four Corners team spoke to more than 200 people for the story, but it’s Harrison’s involvement that has sparked legal interest.
According to The Australian, Seven has engaged leading law firm Herbert Smith Freehills who issued a legal letter to the ABC, “reminding it to be extremely careful before airing the program, given at least one of the interview subjects featured in the promo is already subject to strict gag orders”.
ABC’s Four Corners synopsis itself reads in part: ”Many staff have made legal claims against the network and many past staff have been gagged with non-disclosure agreements.”
Over the weekend, the ABC quietly removed the trailer for the Four Corners episode, but Seven’s lawyer have not yet requested an injunction to stop the episode from airing.
Seven’s CEO Jeff Howard is resigned to the episode airing, as an all-staff email sent over the weekend makes clear.
Jeff Howard
“By now I’m sure many of you will have seen the promo for Monday’s Four Corners episode,” Howard’s pre-emptive strike begins.
“We know they have been working on a story about Seven West Media for a while now. Some of you may have even been approached to participate; unfortunately it looks like a few may have taken up the offer.”
Howard claimed in the email that a lot of the Four Corners investigation is expected to be regarding “historical” problems that have been “well ventilated” by previous media reports.
“If any of the issues they call out weren’t appropriately addressed, that disappoints me,” Howard wrote. “We should have done better, and for that I’m sorry to those affected.”
Howard further said, “a number of people who have displayed behaviour not reflective of SWM’s values have already been removed from the organisation”.
“We have a great team. I want to be really clear that the actions of some individuals do not reflect the values, behaviour and attitude of the business as a whole, which is home to some of the best, hardest working and most passionate media professionals in Australia.”
Adding to Seven’s woes, a journalist recently “removed from the organisation”, former Channel 7 journalist Robert Ovadia, has launched Federal Court action against Seven and its news chief Anthony De Ceglie, who he claims “engaged in adverse action against him, breached his contract, and caused him intentional harm”.
Ovadia was sacked by the network in June following an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour involving emails with a former Seven female employee.
In addition to the emails, Ovadia also reportedly responded to a male colleague’s request for “Dick pics” — relating to child sex charges against former Australian swim coach Dick Caine, a case Ovadia was covering in court — with an image of “an image of a flaccid penis”, obtained via Google search.
“Any suggestion I have been inappropriate at any time is false, malicious and will be defended,” Ovadia said of the allegations.
Four Corners Don’t Speak airs on Monday August 12 at 8.30pm on ABC.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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