Stan Grant: Australia’s top TV host quits after racist abuse

[ad_1]

By Tiffanie TurnbullBBC News, Sydney

1 minute ago

image source, Getty Images

Legend,

Stan Grant is an award-winning Australian journalist

One of Australia’s most prominent TV hosts, Stan Grant, has pulled out of presenting a prime time show after being the victim of ‘relentless’ racist abuse.

Grant said he had always endured racism in his career, but it intensified after he covered the king’s coronation for national broadcaster ABC.

The veteran Indigenous journalist had spoken during the coverage of the impact of colonization on his people.

The ABC has called for an end to the “grotesque” abuse against the host.

But Grant also accused his employer of an “institutional failure” to protect or defend him.

Grant has won several journalism awards over a four-decade career and in 1992 became the first prime-time Aboriginal host on Australian commercial television.

But on Friday, he announced he was stepping away indefinitely from his roles as host of the ABC’s flagship Q+A panel discussion show and writing a weekly online column.

“Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I’ve had enough,” the Wiradjuri man wrote.

“I don’t want to be part of it. I want to find a place of grace away from the stench of the media.”

Mr Grant said he was asked to be part of ABC’s coronation coverage specifically to speak about the legacy of the monarchy.

During the segment, he said the symbol of the Crown “represented invasion, land theft – and in our case – war of extermination”, referring to a period of martial law in the 1820s in New York. South Wales which was used to justify the murders. of the Wiradjuri people.

The discussion has divided netizens, and some people have filed formal complaints with the ABC about its appropriateness.

On Friday, Grant accused some “people in the media” of twisting his remarks and portraying him as “filled with hate”, inflaming racist abuse against him.

He said he apologized if his own comments offended, but said the “hard truths” were spoken out of love for Australia.

“No one at the ABC…has uttered a single word of public support. No ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me,” he wrote.

In a statement, ABC News director Justin Stevens described Grant as “one of Australia’s finest and most respected journalists” and said his treatment had been “abhorrent”.

Stevens did not address the frustrations Grant had aimed at the organization, but said “the ABC supports him.”

Regarding the Coronation segment, the news director added that it was “regrettable” that it elicited “a strong response from some viewers”.

“Any complaints, criticisms – or vitriol – about the coverage should be directed at me, not him,” he said, adding that the ABC would continue to refer threats to police.

Grant’s announcement sparked an outpouring of tributes from media industry peers.

“Stan Grant is an Australian icon, a serious journalist, a leader in this country. This is a sad and shameful outcome,” columnist Sean Kelly wrote.

[ad_2]