Lee Lin Chin, the former SBS newsreader and Australian television legend, has confirmed she left her long-running role due to the alleged “mistreatment of staff” at the network.
The Guardian Australia reports Chin, who left her gig as SBS World News’ weekend anchor in 2018 after 30 years at the network, sent a resignation letter to former SBS chairman Hass Dellal decrying her “general unhappiness at the style of management of the network, the culture resulting from it,” and what she called a lack of “common human respect.”
An SBS spokesperson said Dellal twice tried to meet with Chin to discuss the letter, but she didn’t respond.
Speaking to The Guardian, Chin said she spoke out to back the current and former SBS staff who have accused the network of racist practices in the newsroom and a lack of diversity in its management team.
In a July 1 statement, SBS Managing Director James Taylor said he was “shocked and saddened by accounts of racism experienced at SBS.”
Addressing concerns about the make-up of SBS’ upper ranks, Taylor said, “not unlike many institutions today, we still have a way to go to reflect the diversity of the audiences we serve amongst our senior leadership team.”
Late last month, SBS staff circulated an open letter commenting on the soon-to-be-vacant role of Director of News.
“Since 1978, the position of Director of News has been occupied by Anglo-Saxon men with the exception of Irene Buschtedt between 1993 and 1995,” the letter states, adding that the “next person to hold this position must be a member of Australia’s multicultural or minority community.”
Speaking to The Guardian, Chin said she had not personally experienced racist interactions at the broadcaster, but the concerns she raised in her resignation letter were ongoing.
“Only the glare of exposure would put an end to this unhappy state of affairs,” she said.
You can read The Guardo’s full piece here.
