‘Systemic’ abuse of powers found at Australia’s Nine following investigation
Australian media company Nine Entertainment is plagued by systemic issues of abuses of power and authority, including bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment, a comprehensive independent report into its workplace management and culture has found.
The landmark report, probing long-standing abuses in the broadcast television industry, has made 22 recommendations, prioritised into foundational, intermediate and advanced changes required for the reset of culture at Nine.
The Nine board has “unreservedly” apologised following the publication of the review, which was instigated in May after public claims of bullying and impropriety were voiced by former and current employees in the TV news and current affairs division.
The investigation and report was conducted by organisational culture firm Intersection.
Nine chair Catherine West said it was an “incredibly difficult day” for the network and described the findings as confronting.
West said: “The behaviour outlined in the report is unacceptable. Abuse of power, bullying, sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct is not okay. This behaviour has no place at Nine.”
She acknowledged that “too many of our past and present employees have been harmed by poor workplace culture.”
The company said that the report’s findings would inform the work currently underway to rehabilitate the network’s organisational and workplace culture and management practices.
After canvassing the experiences of current and former employees across all media divisions, the report found that the main reasons driving toxic mismanagement practices and operations included a lack of leadership accountability with power imbalances.
Gender inequality and a lack of diversity is prevalent, with staff reporting significant distrust in leaders at all levels of the business.
In damning report findings: almost one in three (30%) Nine employees reported witnessing sexual harassment in the last five years; employees at Nine’s streamer Stan (45%) were most likely to have been bystanders to sexual harassment, followed by broadcast (37%), and radio (36%).
Meanwhile overall, 9% of employees said they had directly observed sexual harassment themselves; one in seven (14%) said they heard about it from a person who was sexually harassed; and, one in five (20%) said they heard about it from people other than the person who was sexually harassed.
Streaming division Stan and the radio arm reported a higher prevalence of witnessing than experiencing bullying, discrimination or harassment which the report suggested “in these divisions in particular, much of the bullying, discrimination or harassment occurs ‘out in the open’ and is either directly observed by, or disclosed to, other Nine employees.”
The Nine board currently features an interim CEO, a recently jettisoned communications director and two vacant board positions.
It has committed to implementing all 22 recommendations and has requested management to provide the board and employees a comprehensive action plan to uplift the company’s culture during November 2024.
West also acknowledged that despite a “proactive culture change agenda” underway, which has included many executive departures, “the reality is much more needs to be done and a cultural reset is required. Nine’s board and leadership team are united in their commitment to accelerating and driving the required change.”
Nine acting CEO Matt Stanton said: “The Intersection report makes for hard reading for the many people who love working for Nine and all that we stand for. It was personally distressing for me to read these stories from our people. The behaviour experienced by many of our people right across the business is not acceptable in any workplace and falls well below what our people should expect in the work environment.”
The Intersection report is currently the most comprehensive review of media culture ever undertaken in the Australian media sector, said Intersection principal Natasha de Silva.
“While our review contains sobering findings, the strong survey participation rate is an indication of the willingness of the Nine workforce to be part of the cultural change.”
The Nine network has established an independent hotline for all current and former employees to contact to report any experiences they have had in relation to sexual harassment or any other inappropriate behaviour.
