Four Nine staff who signed an open letter last November calling for Australian media to “support ethical reporting on Israel and Palestine” have since left the organisation’s mastheads. Former city reporter Najma Sambul announced her resignation from The Age on X on June 24, following the departures of other signatories Miki Perkins, Abbir Dib and Max Walden. None mentioned the letter in their posts announcing their departures or new roles.
Crikey understands that Nine’s response to the letter was a contributing factor to at least one of the journalists’ decision to leave.
The letter caused controversy across the media, particularly at the Nine mastheads, which imposed a ban on reporters who had signed it from covering the conflict (a ban that lasted until May 24 this year). This led to “tense” meetings, with staff arguing that the ban opened the publication up to accusations of “hypocrisy”, given that editors for Nine’s metro papers — including then executive editor, now managing director of publishing Tory Maguire, Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields, Age editor Patrick Elligett and SMH/Age national editor David King — had taken sponsored trips to the area from pro-Israel groups and had not had any similar conditions placed on their ability to cover the conflict.
One of the major calls the letter made, along with “[giving] adequate coverage to credible allegations of war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid”, was for newsrooms to disclose when journalists had been on such trips, and to reject them in the future.
“A number of people are cognisant of the fact that [Shields and Maguire] have both attended Israel sponsored trips/junkets … and the perception that has on our paper,” one journalist told Crikey at the time.
Another Nine journalist who signed the letter, speaking to Crikey on the condition of anonymity, said that there had been “great unhappiness” among some staff over the publisher’s “heavy handed” response to the letter, pointing out that no other media organisation had imposed an “arbitrary” ban on journalists reporting on the issue.
In March, a note signed by King, Shields, Elligett and Maguire’s replacement as Nine’s executive editor Luke McIlveen, was sent to all publishing staff 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.
