Four Corners reporter Louise Milligan has indicated there are more stories to tell on Seven Network after being contacted by further whistleblowers.
In a discussion with Mumbrella she does not rule out a follow up story, but there are some stories that may never be revealed.
Here are excerpts:
What do you make of Seven’s statement that a lot of these things have since been dealt with, and this program mostly dealt with historical things. Did that annoy you?
Well, that’s not true.
First of all, it’s good to see that they have acknowledged that there are problems there. And, in our research period, they were getting rid of people in real time, you know? But, it’s not true to say that these are all historical issues, because two of the people who we spoke to were still working at the Seven Network when they did their interviews. One of them still is, and one of them has only just left – and she left without a job to go to, earning less than $60,000 a year, because she couldn’t, in conscience, stay at the place. She couldn’t support what was happening there. That was a hugely brave decision for her to do all of that – but she wanted to speak out on behalf of other women. It’s interesting to me because, as I say, we spoke to a lot of really powerful people, or people who had been powerful, within that network, who are far better off than her and have a lot more behind them. So, it just shows how much guts she had.
Was it a frustrating story to report, in that regard? There’s so much information you’re being told, but so little of it that you can actually put on the record and report?
There are some absolutely terrible stories, one that I can think of in particular, one that referred to a person who was still employed by the network that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to scrub from my brain, but that we won’t be able to tell because of the fear that people have.
That one, it frustrates me a lot.
Since our promo went out [on Thursday morning] and since the story had been broadcast, we’ve been contacted by so many more people with so many more stories — which we sort of thought might happen — and it’s one of the frustrations of Four Corners that you just find out about all this other stuff once you broadcast. That happened, with my last story as well, Cranbrook, and that process led to the resignation of Australia’s second-highest-paid principal.
So with that in mind, is this something that you would do a follow-up story on, now that you have all these people that have come to you?
Yeah. We often do follow-up stories, and of course we work for the ABC, so we’re part of an organisation that has the capacity to continue to follow things. And that happened with Cranbrook as well. And it happened with St. Kevin’s story that I did a few years ago, and the story about Saxon Mullins.
Four Corners stories often have the ability to kind of continue to make change after the credits roll.
I noticed Amber Harrison was in the promo and wasn’t in the finished show. Was that for legal reasons?
I can’t talk about Amber Harrison.
Meanwhile Harrison has told the Sydney Morning Herald when she spoke to ABC it was “remaining within the legal boundaries I am bound by.”
“While I understand the complexities involved, the absence of my interview in the final program, after being part of the promo, raises questions about the narrative being shaped and the untold story that remains,” she said.
“This decision left an important story untold, which could have highlighted the consequences of speaking out.”
You can read more at Mumbrella.
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