- Top executives had a huge budget to travel to Europe
- Two were given thousands to fly in luxury
Top ABC executives flew to Europe on $20,000 business-class tickets to promote podcasts for a week (all on taxpayer money), while one of their senior colleagues was relegated to economy class.
The public broadcaster spent more than $30,000 to fly three chief executives to the Radiodays conference in Munich, the EBU conference in Prague and a meeting with the BBC in London between March 14 and 21 this year.
Documents released by the ABC under Freedom of Information Acts show the broadcaster’s head of audio, Ben Latimer, and a second senior executive travelled business class to and from Munich.
They were paid just over $13,000 each for the seven-day trip.
Meanwhile, digital and audio content development manager Andrew Davies, who has worked at the ABC for 21 years, was forced to travel in economy class for the 25-hour flight.
His expenses during the seven-day trip were comparatively small: $4,203.
ABC’s head of audio Ben Latimer is pictured, left, with a Nova executive producer.
Mr. Latimer, pictured left with Chrissie Swan, worked for NOVA before moving to ABC.
Mr Latimer joined the ABC last July. He and Mr Davies were guest speakers at the Radiodays conference.
Mr Davies made two presentations at the conference and appeared in a filmed interview talking about competition around daily news podcasts in Australia.
He did not travel to the EBU conference in Prague with the chief strategist, nor did he attend the BBC meetings in London with Mr Latimer.
The revelation comes just days after the broadcaster admitted to broadcasting a doctored video of an Australian soldier shooting unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
An audio expert said the sound of at least five gunshots was added to the footage to make it appear as if Australian soldiers were repeatedly shooting at villagers rather than firing a single warning shot.
Andrew Davies has been working for the ABC for 21 years. Unlike his colleagues, he flew economy class to Europe.
The clip had accompanied an online report on alleged war crimes prepared by the ABC’s elite investigative unit, but was removed. after Seven’s Spotlight programme raised questions about manipulated audio.
ABC was warned about the images but did not act on them.
Outgoing CEO David Anderson has now announced a full independent investigation into the scandal.
Mr Anderson said it was crucial to identify the source of the error to maintain public confidence in his journalism.
“The ABC is subject to the highest scrutiny, as it should be given the trust the public places in it,” he said.
‘Trust in the ABC has been built over time by delivering exceptional journalism, maintaining the highest editorial standards and being transparent with the public about how we do it.’
