A Sydney man has been charged with making online threats towards Indigenous ABC journalist Stan Grant.
Key points:
- The man was granted bail and is due to appear in court next week
- Stan Grant last week announced he would step away from his media commitments indefinitely
- ABC staff held rallies around the country on Tuesday in support of Grant
The 41-year-old accused was arrested in Fairfield Heights, in the city’s west, on Wednesday evening, and taken to the local police station.
“He was charged with use carriage to threaten serious harm and carriage service to menace/harass/offend,” a NSW Police spokesperson said.
The man was granted bail and will front Fairfield Local Court on May 31.
The alleged threats against Grant, 59, were reported to police on Tuesday morning.
Grant wrote in his weekly column last week he would be stepping away from his media commitments.
“For how long? I don’t know,” Grant wrote.
He wrote that no-one at the ABC had publicly supported him, after he was subjected to racist abuse following his appearance on the broadcaster’s coverage of King Charles III’s coronation.
“Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible, this is an institutional failure,” Grant wrote.
The veteran journalist and broadcaster has hosted the current-affairs program Q+A since August last year.
“To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say — if your aim was to hurt me, well, you’ve succeeded,” he said during the final stages of Monday’s episode — his last, before stepping away.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me.”
Grant said he was not stepping away from the show because of racism or social media but because he needed a break from the media.
On Tuesday ABC staff held rallies around the country in support of Grant.
Addressing a crowd of hundreds outside the organisation’s Sydney headquarters, ABC News Director Justin Stevens said he was “incredibly sorry” that Grant “felt let down”.
“We could have done better by him in defending him,” Stevens said.
“We will do all we can to make up for it from this moment.”
The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, has apologised to Grant and announced a review of supports for staff subjected to racist abuse.
He told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday the ABC needed to do more to defend and protect staff.