Australian TV bosses say “appropriate action” has been taken against an employee who leaked an anti-Djokovic rant by news hosts
A three-day internal investigation into the leaking of an off-air exchange between Australian TV news hosts in which they described Novak Djokovic an “a**hole” has revealed a culprit, says Ai-Media.
Footage of the now-viral discussion between television news anchors Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor quickly traversed social media when it appeared online earlier this week, even being featured on US late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but prompted red-faced bosses at the Channel 7 network to launch the drive to identify the leaker.
The apparently exhaustive investigation has revealed that an employee at Ai-Media, the company which provides captioning services for the network, was behind the release of the embarrassing clip.
Sleuths at the network identified the suspect by analyzing time stamps from the footage which were not present on their own feed, implying the that leaker was not a Channel 7 employee.
And now Ai-Media has said that the unnamed person in question has been reprimanded, and vowed that the situation won’t be repeated in future.
“As a result of the investigation, Ai-Media has identified that an employee working remotely due to the Covid-19 outbreak was responsible for the unauthorized distribution of the content,” read a statement from the company delivered to the Australian Stock Exchange.
“Appropriate action has been taken with regard to the employee responsible.”
Ai-Media CEO Tony Abrahams also commented on the situation and vowed that other companies who use their services need not worry about confidential information being published online in future.
“We are Australia’s leading provider of captioning services and we understand the importance of our work in making media accessible and inclusive to a wider audience, while safeguarding the confidential information of our customers,” said Abrahams.
“We have long standing and strong relationships within the media industry in Australia, and value our relationship with the Seven Network with whom we have been working with for over five years.
“This is the first such incident in Ai-Media’s 19-year history and enhanced controls have since been implemented to ensure it cannot be repeated.”
Neither Maddern nor Amor have referenced the incident during a broadcast since the clip was spread online – but figures within the network have stated that Maddern has apologized privately.
“Whatever way you look at it, Novak Djokovic is a lying, sneaky a**hole,” Maddern can be heard saying in the leaked video.
“That’s it, I mean he’s an a**hole. He got a bullsh*t f*cking excuse and then fell over his own f*cking lies. It’s just what happens, right, that’s what happened,” added Amor.
