Sky News Australia will now pre-record its newest After Dark show, Freya Fires Up, rather than broadcast it live, after the network invited a guest promoting Islamophobic views wearing rashers of raw bacon on his chest onto its program on Sunday evening.
The News Corp network had no senior editors or managers on hand to vet the show’s guest in advance on Sunday, leaving 22-year-old Freya Leach and her sole junior producer to allow the guest’s comments go to air live and unchecked, two sources with knowledge of the matter, but not authorised to speak publicly, said. Both Leach and her producer are expected to keep their roles.
Sky News host Freya Leach with guest Ryan Williams (left) wearing raw rashers of bacon on Sunday night.
Sky usually cycles through a roster of senior editors on a Sunday, and it is standard practice for all programs to submit their list of guests in advance, a network staffer said. Its head of programs Mark Calvert is on leave and did not approve the guest. This masthead revealed on Monday that Sky will be reviewing the program and its booking processes after the interview was scrubbed from the show’s full reupload online.
There was a senior producer overseeing the live broadcast, who pulled the guest around one minute into his appearance.
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In 2018, when Sky News aired an interview between its host Adam Giles and neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell on immigration, the network committed internally to having a manager oversee every guest booking made on the channel. Cottrell also appeared on a Sunday, and Giles’ show was suspended for two months.
Sky’s news programs during the day, AM Agenda and Afternoon Agenda, have interview producers who book guests for the shows, while the After Dark programs each have one producer who also manages their own talent and bookings.
Leach issued a full apology during The Late Debate, a show she also co-hosts, on Monday evening. She said the guest, 33-year-old British citizen Ryan Williams, should not have appeared.
“He was asked specifically for his reaction to the Charlie Kirk assassination and its fallout, but instead used our platform to spread his harmful views,” Leach told viewers in a pre-recorded statement.
