★★★★★ 0/5

Spiteri to sue Nine

2
Leave a comment

Yesterday Nine News reporter Christine Spiteri was on the red carpet at the Oscars, cheerfully fulfilling her role as an LA correspondent for the network.

Meanwhile, she had launched a claim in the Australian Federal Court against the same network, after Nine rejected attempts at conciliation in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Spiteri is seeking damages of $US522,497 ($564,278), alleging Nine breached two sections of the Trade Practices Act covering misleading and deceptive conduct, and similar provisions relating to the workplace.

Spiteri initially filed a sexual discrimination claim with the HREOC on December 21.

In the new documents, she repeats comments allegedly made by Nine news chief John Westacott that were first included in the HREOC claim.

“To make it in this industry, you gotta have f..kability. To make it in this game, women have to be f..kable,” Mr Westacott is alleged to have said.

In the claim, she also alleges Nine damaged her reputation by claiming she was not “good enough” to host a news program, such as Nightline, and that she was “unable to engage in serious journalism”. Mr Westacott is alleged to have said women reporters should do the “soft news” stories and leave the big-hitting reports to men.

“Sheilas do health and consumer stories, the second break stuff (referring to the second ad break). You want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories,” he is alleged to have said.

The Australian understands Spiteri will be seeking copies of the employment contracts of Nine reporters during the discovery process.

Spiteri has been with Nine for 14 years but was told her contract will not be renewed when it expires next month.

The Nine Network has repeatedly asserted it will fight the claims by Spiteri. Tara Brown, a reporter for 60 Minutes has previously noted, “I’ve worked with John Westacott for 15 years. He might be many things but I’ve never found him to be sexist.”

Source: The Australian

2 Responses

  1. If Christine Spiteri gets a job with Seven, they will then be unstoppable no matter who nine get to try and claw back the viewers..saw a report from her the other night,when she says her name at the end of it, she doesnt flinch at all when nine is mentioned and is quite funny that nine just doesnt just cut the report short as to not advertise her name. maybe they just arent allowed to do it-must be the reason.

  2. the attitude of the head honchos of Nine really should a some stage sit down and look at them selves. The Nine Network just isnt the same anymore, they pretend they are “still the one”, but actually far from it. They want the viewers watching their network, but all the people the viewers know are changing sides and ending up on other networks. The viewers wont come back to nine when the majority of known faces are getting axed. Christine Spiteri’s axing is pretty much the final straw to how i see it. Its time Nine acknowledged the error, pay her what she wants, renew her contract, and to be direct – wake up. Seven is so together. Is it because the management of Seven recognise that the staff that work there are the engine room of the whole network? Time for Nine to watch some Seven Network shows and see how they do it better.

    As for Mrs Spiteri, good luck in the future, hope to see you on another network soon.

Leave a Reply