A veteran News Corp Australia photographer has given devastating evidence to a parliamentary inquiry about the way the Murdoch newspapers treated female employees and directed photographers to only take pictures of conventionally attractive young women.
Anna Rogers, who was made redundant last year, told the media diversity inquiry she worked in a sexist and toxic culture at Cumberland Newspapers, the Australian, the Courier-Mail and the Cairns Post between 1991 and 2020, where men were consistently promoted over women.
Women were denied pay rises and flexible work hours and she believed all staff were forced to sign employment contracts which gave the company the right to “listen in” to their phone calls, she told senators.
Rogers said she had been consistently told not to take pictures of “pigs in lipstick” while the appearance of male subjects was never raised.
In 1994, when Paul Kelly was editor-in-chief of the Australian, she was told to take photographs of attractive women to increase female readership.
“During a news conference the editor Paul Kelly indicated to the news conference staff that the Australian wanted to increase female readership,” Rogers said in her submission. “His argument was that women buy women’s magazines and that they like to look at attractive women.”
In 2011, a picture editor at Queensland’s Sunday Mail ordered social photographers not to take any pictures of any “pigs in lipstick”, which was interpreted to mean any middle-aged women or those who may be overweight or not conventionally attractive.
“While working on the Courier-Mail, I was encouraged to seek out attractive women to photograph to ‘get a better run’ in the Courier-Mail,” she said. “This meant the photo would run in the earlier pages of the paper if the subject was attractive.”
Former Murdoch reporters turning out in force to testify at the Senate Inquiry initiated following our #MurdochRoyalCommission petition. Here's Tony Koch, one of News Corp's most decorated journalists, on how his former employer routinely ignores Liberal corruption & misconduct. pic.twitter.com/rPsMOK8fC5
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) March 12, 2021
Given News Corp’s media monopoly in Queensland, this attitude had a negative effect on society, Rogers said.
She said the culture was “extremely derogatory to women” but she had to comply with directions from the editors and there was no avenue for dissent or complaint.
“To keep my job, I had to apply this test which meant that women who were over 35, were overweight, were not photographed for the paper,” Rogers said.
“While employed at the Cairns Post 2011 to 2020 I was encouraged to take photos of attractive young women, with instructions such as, ‘Get a photo of a yummy mummy,’ or, ‘Get a photo of a pretty tourist.’
“Again, there was the explanation that a photo of an attractive person would get a better run in the paper. “I feel that this emphasis on the appearance of women has diminished the chance of being treated equally to men in the media. There was never a direction to get a photo of a ‘handsome man’.
“I believe this emphasis on women’s looks has fostered sexism in our society. As a woman working in the media, the emphasis on the appearance of women made me feel compromised and uncomfortable.”
Female politicians and wives of sportsmen, or wags, were derided for what they wore while men were treated on merit, she said.
In mid-2019, subscription targets were introduced, she said, and staff became very stressed about having to sign on readers or miss a target.
A managing editor at the Cairns Post sent an email to all editorial staff that year saying “as you can imagine i get forensically anal-ised that’s not a spelling mistake about our subscription targets”.
Rogers said a lack of diversity had allowed News Corp to descend from a reputable company to one where “women are considered as pigs in lipstick, with a toxic work culture where even the managing editor feels he is being forensically anal-ised”.
She said: “The contract that we all had to sign gave the company the right to listen into our phone conversations. And you couldn’t get a job with News Corp without signing that.”
She also said she had not been given bushfire training, she had been told to clean the company toilets during Covid, and she had not been provided with personal protective equipment except for a single mask.
“I believe that the clickbait culture has created a toxic culture where staff get intimidated and bullied,” she said.
Senators also heard from the Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor, who said the news website was established in 2013 partly in response to the lack of media diversity in Australia.
Taylor said Guardian Australia contributed to media diversity in the country but could not be seen as a counter-balance to the dominance of News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment because it was relatively small.
Guardian Australia did not have the capacity to cover state politics, courts or many specialist rounds, she said. It employed 112 full-time equivalent staff including 76 journalists.
Taylor was asked about her previous experiences working at News Corp and she said she was never directed to write something while reporting for the Australian.
However, she said she would occasionally get briefs from news conference in her second stint at the paper after 2007, and when she didn’t agree with the brief she would push back and editors would drop it or give it to another reporter.
Former Murdoch journalist @Anthony_Klan tells Senate media diversity inquiry his investigative work on “gouging” retail super funds covering 5 million Australians was effectively closed down by his editors. His report was fact checked and legalled .. but spiked. pic.twitter.com/04Wkmz9R3u
— Quentin Dempster (@QuentinDempster) March 12, 2021
Following the damaging evidence by Rogers the committee subsequently heard from another ex-News employee, investigative journalist Anthony Klan.
Klan, a Walkley award-winning finance reporter at the Australian for 15 years, revealed he had a significant investigation spiked after lobbying from Westpac. He was called into the office of then-editor John Lehmann to discuss the story and there were several Westpac executives on speakerphone during the meeting.
“I was told I was not permitted to speak, although the meeting was held over speakerphone and only Lehmann spoke from the Australian’s end,” Klan told the inquiry. “On the other line, there were up to a dozen Westpac executives and lawyers. What ensued was all aimed at preventing the story from being published.”
Veteran News Corp journalist Tony Koch told the inquiry the company had taken a “huge right turn” since he first began his career more than 30 years ago. He said the organisation favoured the LNP and ignored negative stories about the conservative political party.
Koch won the Walkley award five times for his work at News Corp but has become a vehement critic in recent years. Lehmann and the Australian were approached for comment.
