‘Half-heartedly’ journalists’ union condemned Costello incident

The union representing journalists, MEAA, has been accused of a “half-hearted condemnation” of the Peter Costello incident at Canberra airport, which left the reporter on the ground.

“The Sydney Morning Herald” in an editorial indicates that journalist Liam Mende comes from the rival “The Australian” owned by News Corp.

Then-CEO of Nine Entertainment Costello allegedly knocked a reporter to the ground during a sexual harassment hearing at Nine.

The former federal treasurer resigned as chairman over the weekend after the incident.

“Over recent months, MEAA has published press releases on its website criticizing the ABC’s firing of Antoinette Lattouf, the continued detention of Julian Assange and the jailing of whistleblower David McBride, but failed to do the same when a working journalist landed on a post-meeting with the head of a large media organization,” The Herald said in its opinion.

“The best the MEAA could come up with was a tweet posted 24 hours after the incident, which stated that Costello “should know that the journalist asking him questions was simply doing his job and, like every other employee in this country, deserves to be treated with respect and be safe’.”

Herold described the tweet as “a gratuitous response that did not meet the gravity of the moment” and said the union’s reaction would have been different if the journalist had been from ABC.

This was announced by the MEAA spokesman Advertising messages its members know and appreciate how hard the union works every day for the safety and well-being of journalists and press freedom.