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Grant ‘ignored’ Kostakidis

From the time he was appointed to World News Australia, Stan Grant treated Mary Kostakidis, “with disdain and generally ignored her presence, except very occasionally making a remark to her while on air,” according to court documents filed yesterday.

“Grant hardly ever made contact with Kostakidis and acted as if she were not present,” it is claimed.

The allegations are part of the breach of contract case Mary Kostakidis is making against SBS in which management allegedly bullied and intimidated her.

“Kostakidis was subject to contempt and bullying tactics by Grant, Cutler and Brown and was forced to persevere under enormous strain and continue to perform her duties in a professional manner,” her statement says.

She claims she had to repeatedly battle management over “the allocation of interviews, which always favoured Grant, and found the daily battle humiliating and debilitating.”

Kostakidis claims the SBS audience was often referred to as “old geezers” amid a push to make the news more tabloid and attract greater revenue. The Head of News and Current Affairs allegedly called her “the last of the old guard,” she claims.

SBS has responded with a short statement, “SBS has nothing but the highest regard for Mary Kostakidis and has taken every possible step to resolve any issues she has in an amicable fashion,” the broadcaster said. “That said, SBS is confident of its position in this matter and will be vigorously defending itself and any staff members against any unwarranted allegations Ms Kostakidis may bring before the court.”

Kostakidis also claims to have turned down offers from ABC News and Foreign Correspondent due to her loyalty with SBS, a position she has enjoyed since more than 20 years.

The case is scheduled to begin November 2nd.

Sources: The Australian, The Age

6 Responses

  1. I noticed that Mary expected to have some editorial control over the news content. What newsreader do you know says what’s in and what’s out? She should just get over it… Stan kicks arse!

  2. the first “anonymous” perhaps has never been in the workforce before? I think any employee of ANY organisation should be allowed basic respect and to be acknowledged (ie. not to be ignored). I don’t think Ms Kostakidis ever complained that Stan “didn’t like her”. Nobody expects to be friends with everyone they work with, but to expect some basic courtesy is not too much to ask and it sounds like Mary wasn’t getting that.
    Also, she is suing because the management has diminished her role in contrast to what is written in her contract.

    Sort of unrelated though, but it stuns me that management didn’t do their basic homework and figured out that Australians don’t like Stan Grant which was clearly evident from him hosting “Real Life” which was a dud and whose only achievement was that it inspired “Frontline”. He might have the qualifications and certificates and all, but that doesn’t make him a likeable news presenter.

  3. what odd posts in this page!

    1) she has been bullied in a MO that is very common – maybe you wouldn’t be so quick to judge if you had suffered this type of insidious behaviour.

    2) as for the other poster, what is this? The homosexual agenda??? What have you been smoking??? In fact SBS is now run by right wing hacks, actually.

  4. We all know that SBS is run by a bunch of far left wing intellectuals..

    She’s just annoyed that he has brought some balance to an otherwise TV station run by homosexual elites!

  5. Was there a clause in her conjtract that said “all co presneters must treat me with respect and acknowledge my presence. And no time shall any one dislike me”

    Its not the first time in TV history two co-hosts didnt get along and barely spoke of camera. It just proves shes scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses and didnt have the fortitude to be a professional.

    Lots of people hate there job, they dont sue because of it.

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