The journalist union's 'half-hearted condemnation' of the Costello incident

The union representing journalists, the MEAA, has been accused of making a "half-hearted condemnation" of the Peter Costello incident at Canberra Airport which put a reporter on the ground. 

The Sydney Morning Herald, in an editorial, points to the journalist, Liam Mende, being from competitor News Corp's The Australian.

The then Nine Entertainment chairman Costello allegedly knocked the reporter to the ground while being questioned about a sexual harassment issue at Nine.

The former federal treasurer resigned as chairman at the weekend following the incident.

"Over recent months, the MEAA has published press releases on its website criticising the ABC’s sacking of Antoinette Lattouf, the ongoing detention of Julian Assange and the jailing of whistleblower David McBride, but failed to do the same when a working journalist ended up sprawled on the ground after an encounter with the head of a major media organisation," said the Herald in its opinion article.

"The best the MEAA could come up with was a tweet 24 hours after the incident which said Costello 'should know that a journalist asking him questions is just doing their job, and like any other worker in this country deserves to be treated with respect and to be safe'." 

The herald described the tweet as a "limp response which failed to meet the gravity of the moment" and said that the union’s response would have been different if the journalist had been from the ABC.

An MEAA spokesperson told AdNews its members know and appreciate how hard the union works every day for the safety and well-being of journalists and for press freedom.