The board and senior management of Nine Entertainment face serious questions over who knew about the allegedly decade-long behaviour of drunken lechery by former head of Channel Nine’s news and current affairs division Darren Wick.
Revelations by News Corp last week, followed by Kate McClymont’s detailing of allegations about Wick’s predatory behaviour on the weekend, spell out that, according to multiple accusers, Wick’s behaviour of groping women while drunk continued for years. Today The Australian suggested Nine was using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to keep female staff quiet about Wick’s behaviour.
If true, there are hard questions for Nine to answer:
- Did chair Peter Costello, on the Nine board since 2013 and chair since 2016, know about Wick’s behaviour? Did other Nine directors?
- Did Mike Sneesby, CEO since 2021, know? Did predecessor Hugh Marks, who resigned suddenly in 2020 amid questions about his relationships with female staff, know? Did veteran director of television Michael Healy know? What about HR executive Vanessa Morley?
- If NDAs exist in relation to Wick’s conduct, who approved them? What did they cost? Nine shareholders are entitled to know.
- When will Nine free female staff from their NDA obligations so that they can reveal their own treatment? A media company using NDAs to shut down embarrassing information is guilty of the most profound hypocrisy. NDAs cause “great harm” to survivors of sexual harassment. “For too long, we have seen victims of sexual assault silenced by use of NDAs,” workplace lawyer Liberty Sanger said in 2022 — as reported by Nine News itself.
- Who approved Wick’s reported $1 million payout when he abruptly resigned in March (after another complaint was investigated)?
Any board member or senior manager who knew of Wick’s alleged behaviour and did nothing, or conspired to cover it up, needs to immediately resign, particularly given Nine purports to be a credible media company. Whatever the many faults of Seven, at least there has been some accountability for a long series of scandals there: director of news and current affairs Craig McPherson resigned; Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn resigned; producer Steve Jackson resigned for a NSW Police media job that never happened; and CEO James Warburton did a Joyce and brought forward his resignation.
Where is the similar accountability at Nine for those who knew about Wick?
Every workplace ends up having behavioural issues at some point, whether bullying, sexual predation, alcohol-related misconduct or theft. What matters is how people are made accountable and what culture and rules senior management put in place to protect staff. If the reports from multiple sources are true, Nine’s most senior executives have known about significant serious sexual harassment for years, silenced complainants and allowed the perpetrator to continue unchallenged.
It’s noteworthy that McClymont followed up News Corp’s coverage, effectively pitting the last remaining outlet of quality corporate media journalism against the tabloid entertainment business that owns it, and the sewer that appears to be television news in Australian media. Kudos to News Corp for exposing allegations about Wick, but that’s in dire contrast to its complete non-reporting of the departure of Australian editor in chief Chris Dore “after making lewd comments towards a woman at an event“. Dore has since been given a home and a promotion by Seven West Media.
And is Nine Entertainment the only media company to use NDAs? Or have other companies notionally pledged to transparency and accountability also used them to silence victims of sexual harassment?
If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
