Scott McIntyre (journalist)

Scott McIntyre is an Australian football commentator formerly employed by SBS. He joined SBS in 2003, and was a sports reporter from 2008 to 2015. He was a presenter of the SBS soccer program The World Game. He has also written for The Guardian.[1]

On Anzac Day 2015 he made five tweets criticising atrocities committed by Australian soldiers, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the celebration of Anzac Day.[2] He was criticised by the then-communications minister Malcolm Turnbull over Twitter. Minister Turnbull also had a late-night phone call with Michael Ebeid, the managing director of SBS. The next morning McIntyre was sacked. Mr Turnbull denied having any influence over the sacking.[3]

After this McIntyre retained the law firm Maurice Blackburn, who worked pro bono,[4] and took legal action against SBS under the Fair Work Act 2009 for unfair dismissal alleging that proper procedure had not been followed. The Fair Work Commission ruled that his unfair dismissal case could go ahead.[5] SBS claimed that he had been sacked not for exercising his free speech but for violating the SBS code of conduct and social media guidelines.[6] SBS settled the case out of court shortly before a three-day hearing in the New South Wales Federal Court was to have started.[7]

On Anzac Day 2016 McIntyre again made several tweets regarding past Australian war crimes, such as the Surafend affair and an excerpt from Time of Fallen Blossoms by Allan Clifton describing a gang rape by Australian soldiers of a Japanese girl in Hiroshima during the Occupation of Japan. The tweets again attracted considerable media attention.[8][9][10]

References

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