'People are frightened about speaking out': Channel Seven's NDA ...

An investigation into Channel Seven has revealed a toxic workplace culture, characterised by bullying, sexism, and harassment, particularly towards women.

“People are frightened about speaking out because they say they’ve seen the way others have been crushed,” Louise Milligan said, regarding the overriding feeling amongst the 200-plus former and current Seven journalist she spoke to when preparing tonight’s story. 

Amy Taeuber, who was a 27-year-old cadet journalist in Adelaide, appeared on Four Corners, but was unable to talk in detail about her experiences due to a non disclosure agreement. Taeuber made a sexual harassment complaint against an older male senior staffer, and was dismissed from Seven shortly after. 

“This was a widely used tool,” a former HR worker at Seven told Milligan, anonymously. Numerous complainants have been silenced by non-disclosure agreements, ranging from terminations during maternity leave to those who accused other of sexual harassment, preventing them from sharing their experience, “agreements that gagged them forever” as Milligan puts it.

“They’re trying to present an illusion of being robust, happy workplaces, performing a public interest in cutting-edge journalism,” said solicitor Josh Bornstein, who represents multiple clients from Seven and Nine.

“What the NDAs do is mask the reality of a brutal workplace culture in which women particularly are mistreated very badly and routinely. It’s an unusually brutal culture. I haven’t seen anything like it.”

A female journalist, represented by Bornstein, is suing the network for sexual discrimination, alleging a deeply sexist work environment.

The woman who worked on Seven’s Spotlight program recounts finding a pornographic image in an edit suite in 2022, depicting a woman with her “legs spread”.

She also claims her male colleagues indulged in luxury while she worked gruelling “10 to 12 hour days, 7 days a week”.

The woman’s legal letter to Seven states her senior male colleagues “left the office for hours at a time, to dine and consume alcohol at various restaurants in Martin Place… upon their return to the office, they frequently appeared significantly affected by alcohol”.

She claims a male colleague blew the production budget on an overseas trip, and drank so much he was “lying… on the ground, in the gutter”.

The same colleague, when referring to a victim of sexual assault, allegedly told the woman: “Your job is just to get this bitch’s story.”

The journalist claims she became so ill due to workplace stress her oxygen levels were dangerously low and she was coughing up blood; however, she was expected to continue working at home.

“I got to the point where I was suicidal, and I remember in one particularly dark moment where I’d worked all weekend. I rang Lifeline, and I made a doctor’s appointment because I knew I was so close to taking my own life,” she told Four Corners.

Another female journalist also became suicidal after working extremely long hours, including weekends, barely scraping minimum wage.

Earlier this year, the journalist ran in front of a car outside the network’s Brisbane office and then threw herself down a hill.

“I just spiralled,” she said.

“The only way I can describe it is I felt like I had a noose around my neck,” she said.

She felt like she was “in a committed domestic violence relationship with [Seven News]”.

Reporter Olivia Babb, who worked alongside the woman at Seven, described it as “one of the most degrading, soul-crushing places you can work”.

“How do they sleep at night?” she said.

Babb also claimed to have been harassed and bullied while working for Seven.

In April, it was revealed that Spotlight paid accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann’s rent for a year and there was also an allegation that the network covered the costs of sex workers and cocaine.

Lehrmann and Seven deny these claims.

Court documents claim that Spotlight’s male producers were dining in fancy restaurants and playing golf with Lehrmann.

Babb said she was “mortified, angry and embarrassed” by the allegations.

“You really think #MeToo has made any difference to Seven? I have never seen anything come through that makes us think that.”

Another complaint uncovered by Four Corners includes a Sydney journalist who is also suing the network for a myriad of reasons, including sexual harassment by a cameraman, in which she texted her former boss: “That f**ker scares me and is most uncomfortable to work with… he’s creepy and inappropriate.”

The woman also claims her boss forbade her from wearing glasses on air despite two male staffers being allowed to do so.

She said he told her the network news director said to him, that they make her “look like f**king Buddy Holly” and “don’t f**king wear them again”.

The same woman alleges that when she refused to approach the husband of a mother who jumped off a cliff with her toddler, a manager threatened to send a reporter who was seven months pregnant.

She says that on more than 20 occasions, she had to hand her story over to a male reporter – often on traumatic stories including fatalities of children where she had worked late into the night.

Employees who have raised complaints about their treatment to management have not been handled correctly, it has been claimed.

A member of the human resources team said she was told to go through the emails of staffers who management wanted to get rid of and construct false or misleading cases against them so their contracts could be terminated

“I feel sick to my stomach and I feel like it’s a gross misuse of internal policies that are intended to be there for ethical reasons and a warping of those policies to suit … an orchestrated end result,” the anonymous person said.

The same employee alleges that she overheard her male colleagues commenting on the size of an on-air presenter’s breasts.

“There was a real sexualisation of women, definitely, in the newsroom,” she told Four Corners.

Another male news director recalled similar commentary claiming that he was blasted by a senior person because a fill-in updates presenter had “no tits”.

“It would be awful, awful deeply misogynistic texts,” he said.

In a statement on Monday, Seven West Media said it notes the issues raised by ABC’s Four Corners program.

A spokesperson said: “While we are clearly concerned about allegations of poor behaviour and any mistreatment of employees, a number of matters raised represent old issues that have been well aired and dealt with, in some cases many years ago. A number of people who have displayed behaviour not reflective of SWM’s values have already been removed from the organisation.

“We encourage all Seven West Media team members to call out any behaviour that does not reflect our values. Whistle-blower protections are in place and are regularly re-emphasised with all staff.

“We have a great team at SWM and 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. Our focus is to build a stronger culture that enables our great people to thrive, and where unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated.”

More to come.