'Distressed' ABC presenter Emma Alberici quits TV over censorship claims

The protracted and painful split between the ABC and its chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici is complete – with a former prime minister and an ex-television current affairs boss weighing in for the final chapter of the saga.

Ms Alberici, who has been at loggerheads with management at the national broadcaster for more than two years, has vowed she will never host a TV program again after the dispute was formally settled on Thursday.

The current troubles date back to 2018, when Ms Alberici published an analysis piece about the government's corporate tax policy. Then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and lobby group Business Council of Australia were among those who complained, prompting ABC to temporarily remove the piece while it investigated.

The resulting storm led to accusations the ABC had “kowtowed” to the government and tried to silence Ms Alberici. An internal ABC investigation later acknowledged several errors in the report. These included: a“materially inaccurate” headline; an incorrect reference to foreign-owned Etihad, Emirates and Qatar as among “Australia’s biggest airlines”; and language that “had the effect of unduly favouring the conclusion that there is no evidence to support Government claims that a corporate tax rate will increase investment and wages”.

In a leaked letter to ABC's managing director David Anderson that was published by News Corp on Friday, Ms Alberici’s lawyer, Chris McArdle claimed the broadcaster’s head of news and investigations, Gaven Morris, told Ms Alberici “that she is the cause of the ‘prime minister ringing him’ with complaints”.

"That, of course, is worrying. It should not be that the prime minister is permitted to ring Mr Morris to make this or that demand as to its editorial content. The ABC must be independent. The only real contact with the prime minister should be the chairperson," Mr McArdle's letter said.

Mr McArdle told this masthead he was "stumped" by the leaking of the letter.

"I don't know whose interest it was in to have that stuff [released to media] the day after we did a deal," he said. "Emma is very distressed by what has been done to her but she has now settled her dispute and it's over. She was unhappy with the past but she is happy with the present and she embraces the future."

Ms Alberici and Mr Turnbull engaged in an online war of words after the letter was made public. In a tweet that tagged Mr Turnbull, she wrote: “Just cos you bully people doesn’t make you correct and others not. The countless letters you sent to the ABC were ridiculous and unbecoming of a PM.”

While the then-prime minister and senior members of his cabinet lodged complaints about Ms Alberici's reporting, claiming some of her articles contained errors and were misleading, Mr Turnbull insists he never called Mr Morris about her work.

On Twitter, Mr Turnbull responded to Ms Alberici: “Pointing out factual errors in a journalist’s work is not bullying – and even more so when the errors were later acknowledged … [your article] was full of errors, confused basic accounting concepts and was widely and publicly criticised including by me in the House.”

An ABC spokesman firmly denied Ms Alberici’s claims of improper editorial interference.

“The allegation that former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull made a phone call to ABC director of news Gaven Morris on any matter is incorrect,” the spokesman said.

But dark clouds might have been on the horizon well before Ms Alberici's tax piece. In his letter, Mr McArdle claimed the ABC’s then-chief of current affairs Bruce Belsham had delayed publication of Ms Alberici’s critical report about the National Broadband Network "so as not to upset the Coalition ahead of the election" in 2013.

On Friday, Mr Belsham rejected these allegations via Twitter, insisting that Ms Alberici’s article breached editorial standards by being too opinionated. Referring to her then-role as host of Lateline, he said that allowing publication of her “personal views on poll eve would have compromised her, Lateline and ABC”.

Emma Alberici posted on Twitter that it was "too painful to be in the public eye".Credit: ABC

Ms Alberici did not respond to requests for comment. She posted on social media: "It is true that the ABC and I reached an agreement yesterday. After 18 years of loyal service, including as one of the country's first mother foreign correspondents (with three kids under three) I am no longer employed by them.

"Despite the enormous toll his actions have taken on my mental health, Gaven Morris wanted to call it a termination payout, no doubt so he could tell the world I was fired for incompetence or some such. To be crystal clear: I have never coveted the camera. I will no longer be on TV and will not accept any role if it's offered. It is too painful to be in the public eye. For further removal of doubt, I have been made no offers from anyone in the media."

Sources at the ABC – who spoke on the condition of anonymity given the confidential nature of the legal settlement – claimed Ms Alberici had been offered other roles during the past two years, including hosting a late news bulletin on ABC's main channel and a job on Foreign Correspondent.

The sources also denied claims that Ms Alberici had been subject to undue pressure or censorship regarding her coverage of the National Broadband Network.

Ms Alberici took action against the ABC through the Fair Work Commission in June after learning her position was to be made redundant, resulting in the settlement. She is now working on a memoir.

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