Kostakidis: I was ignored, bullied Matthew Ricketson October 6, 2007
LONGSTANDING SBS news presenter Mary Kostakidis has sued the network for breach of contract, alleging co-host Stan Grant preferred to read magazines and talk to studio floor managers rather than interact with her and accusing the network's head of bullying.
Kostakidis has been taking medication and seeing a therapist since August, when she walked out of the world news program she has presented for more than two decades.
Kostakidis' lawyers, led by Julian Burnside, QC, yesterday filed an application in the Federal Court for breach of contract and for contravening sections of the Trade Practices Act.
In her statement of claim, Kostakidis alleged her status as principal news presenter was supplanted without consultation by Grant, who was installed as main news reader and interviewer for the re-vamped World News Australia program from the start of 2007.
The statement paints a picture of SBS news managers dismissing their core audience as "old geezers" and determined to make their respected world news program "more tabloid".
Grant was appointed by SBS without consulting Kostakidis and from the start of their professional relationship he treated her "with disdain and generally ignored her presence except very occasionally making a remark to her while on air", she claims.
"Kostakidis attempted to start a conversation on numerous occasions by asking Grant questions, which he then answered perfunctorily and went back to reading a magazine. This behaviour was in view of many staff — studio crew, control room crew, makeup artists, hairdressers, publicists etc — and became the subject of discussion," the statement says.
"By contrast, Grant talked constantly to the main floor manager, mainly about music."
The statement says that soon after Grant's appointment he attended the 2006 Walkley awards as part of the SBS team and sat on the same table as Kostakidis. When a senior producer asked him whether he had met Kostakidis that night, he replied: "I didn't see her, mate. I don't think she was there."
Kostakidis' application says that before signing her present contract late last year, she had "significant editorial influence in the content" of World News Australia and was consulted about appointments to the program.
It also reveals that she had turned down offers to be the replacement for ABC newsreader Richard Morecroft when he retired and to present the ABC's Foreign Correspondent because of her commitment to SBS.
Grant, the former host of tabloid current affairs program Real Life, introduced the majority of stories and most major news interviews for the SBS program.
Kostakidis said she complained to SBS managing director Shaun Brown that her sidelining was causing her "great distress". He responded by falsely accusing her of refusing to work with colleagues and threatening her with legal action if she "did not comply".
She alleged she had been "intimidated and bullied" by Brown, who has been striving for SBS to reach a wider audience and to increase revenue.
Kostakidis' statement says SBS' head of news and current affairs, Paul Cutler, "gave instructions for the bulletin to be 'less grim' and for there to be at least one tabloid story to end each program". "This was described as the 'soft bottom'. Subsequently Cutler introduced a requirement to 'bring up the soft bottom story in the bulletin'."
The matter is set down to be heard early next month.
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