Milne: “A fabrication.” Guthrie: “It absolutely happened.”

Former ABC Chairman Justin Milne and former ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie have disputed details around whether the Chairman pressured her to fire journalists.

Both appeared before a Senate inquiry into political interference into the ABC following the crisis that has engulfed ABC management and Board.

But both contradicted the other around whether Milne had given a directive to “shoot” or fire journalist Andrew Probyn.

In her submission, Guthrie gave a detailed account of what she recalled of the exchange with Milne, and wrote that she was left shaking and nearly in tears. She alleges Milne “berated” her about how then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull hated political editor Andrew Probyn and she should “shoot” him.

Milne told the inquiry this never happened, saying they had a “robust conversation” about ABC funding but barely discussed Probyn. He categorically rejects saying Turnbull hated Probyn.

“That’s a script that she’s written,” Milne said.

“I would describe that phone call as one of very few occasions where Ms Guthrie and I had a disagreement and it was an obvious disagreement.

“I wouldn’t characterise it as heated, I wouldn’t characterise it as belligerent.

“Ms Guthrie is a very intelligent, well-trained, pretty eloquent lawyer who gives as good as she gets, and in the power structure I think that the CEO and the chair are pretty well on equal terms.

“So this was a robust conversation and the conversation was about funding for the ABC.”

On the question of whether Turnbull ever made any suggestion about firing Emma Alberici, Andrew Probyn or any other ABC journalist, he said, “He never ever required anything of me like that. He never suggested anything like that to me, by implication or anything.”

He maintained his comments about staff such as Emma Alberici were in response to management ideas, and were not his.

Later when Michelle Guthrie addressed the inquiry she said, “There absolutely was a conversation on the 15th of June at 4:00pm where he discussed Mr Probyn in a very aggressive and harassing manner.”

She later told senators she interpreted the call as the chairman risking the editorial independence of the broadcaster.

“The very suggestion of firing the chief political editor of the ABC in order to secure funding for Jetstream seemed to me to be the most incredible and ludicrous position,” she said.

When senators told Guthrie that Milne had described her re-telling of the call as a “fabrication”, she rejected his interpretation and insisted “it absolutely happened”.

“That is absolutely not the case,” she said.

Michelle Guthrie left the building through the basement, taken through the loading dock by Parliament House security, but pursued by journalists.

Guthrie is currently pursuing a Fair Work Commission case against the ABC.

Source: Fairfax, ABC