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Nine hosts Liberal Party fundraiser

Concerns raised after CEO Hugh Marks hosts a political fundraiser for Liberal Party on the set of Today.

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Nine CEO Hugh Marks last night hosted a political fundraiser for the Liberal Party at the network’s Willoughby headquarters.

The event was host to Scott Morrison and communications minister, Paul Fletcher, with business leaders from energy, education, mining, real estate and fashion companies, dining with trade minister and deputy Senate leader Simon Birmingham, government services minister Stuart Robert, education minister Dan Tehan, and minister for population cities and urban infrastructure, Alan Tudge on the set of Today.

Nine Chairman and former treasurer Peter Costello did not attend.

Nine, which has previously donated to both Liberal and Labor parties, also supported a Labor business event today.

But Nine’s own print journalists wrote to chief executive officer Hugh Marks and managing director of publishing Chris Janz over concerns about where the Nine newspapers’ political loyalties lie.

“The former Fairfax mastheads have a long history of political independence. If this has changed and we are now associated with the Liberal Party, this should be conveyed to staff. A decision to host fundraisers for Labor or other political parties would be of equal concern,” they wrote.

“We strongly object to our reputation for independent journalism being compromised by the hosting of party political fundraisers. This can only serve to make the job of working journalists more difficult.”

A Nine spokesperson said, “Nine management and board have been clear and strong in the support of the Charter of Editorial Independence. Editorial impartiality is also integral to the operations of our regulated television business.

“We participate actively in our democracy and speak to all parties to press our case around regulation and other political issues that concern our business and the ability of our people to perform their role. We took the opportunity last night to present our case to the Liberal Party at their business forum and today to the Labor Party at their event and dinner with their leader.”

Source: Guardian, MEAA

13 Responses

  1. I think ch9 should balance this out and invite and host a party for a couple of overseas billionaires (and their Australian puppets) with direct links to a totalitarian regime to hand over bags of cash to the ALP

  3. These so-called “journalists” are employees pure and simple. If the checkout chicks at Woolies objected to something their management did, would it raise a murmur? No difference.

    1. You may equate journalism to checkout chicks but not I. There’s a reason why we can’t name any other occasion a network has hosted a fundraiser on site. I also don’t blog on supermarkets and hope not to start!

      1. Congratulations David, you’ve proved my point. People who call themselves “journalists” put themselves on a pedestal and genuinely believe that they are morally and ethically superior to ordinary people (like checkout chicks). And as for comparisons about broadcast networks and on-site hosting, I recall that ABC management allowed ABC Alumni (aka Relevance Deprivation Syndrome Inc) free use of taxpayer owned premises at Ultimo for their launch. This is an organisation that has links to GetUp and the CPSU on their website and regularly engages in anti-Liberal party messages – so not political at all!

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