Source : THE AGE NEWS
One of the ABC’s most senior executives, chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor, is leaving the broadcaster months after his responsibilities were reduced in a restructure.
Oliver-Taylor was involved in the sacking of fill-in broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf, a decision that has plagued the broadcaster for a year and will be scrutinised in a Federal Court trial next month.
News of Oliver-Taylor’s decision comes shortly after ABC managing director David Anderson announced his departure, with both expected to leave the organisation before the arrival of new managing director Hugh Marks.
Oliver-Taylor was hired with an expansive remit in 2023, however, this was reduced in late 2024, as the broadcaster’s chair, Kim Williams, spun its audio assets back out into its own division, led by executive Ben Latimer, who had previously reported to Oliver-Taylor.
Journalist Antoinette Lattouf; and former ABC chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor.Credit: The Age
Oliver-Taylor was a central player in the decision to sack Lattouf in December 2023, after she posted material to social media about the Israel-Gaza war.
The ABC has positioned Oliver-Taylor as the key decision-maker behind the decision as part of its defence, according to a statement made by the broadcaster’s barrister Ian Neil, SC in October.
It has also rejected Lattouf and her team’s updated allegation that both Anderson and former chair Ita Buttrose were key players. Both sides made attempts to settle but after failing to reach an agreement, the trial will go ahead.
Buttrose was replaced by Williams in March last year, with Anderson’s decision to resign in August one of a number of changes to hit the ABC in the time since.
Williams confirmed Marks, the former Nine boss, as the incoming managing director in December. He begins on March 10.
Oliver-Taylor is not the only ABC employee involved in the Lattouf decision to be leaving, with former ABC Radio Sydney manager Steve Ahern also having departed.
Lattouf was taken off-air three days into a five-day contract to cover the ABC’s Sydney Radio Mornings show after she shared a Human Rights Watch post on Instagram with the caption “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war”. Lattouf claimed the ABC said the post had breached its social media policies and cited it in its reasons for her dismissal.
After choosing to dismiss Lattouf, Oliver-Taylor later told a Fair Work Commission hearing he was “still not sure whether there’s a breach or not, if I’m being honest”, when asked about the ABC’s social media policy.
Oliver-Taylor, a former Netflix executive in his second stint at the ABC, was appointed less than two years ago, and was the first to hold the chief content officer role. He is an experienced media executive, having run Fremantle Media, as well as working at the BBC.
While ABC staff voted no confidence in Anderson after this masthead reported alleged interference from pro-Israel lobbyists, pushing for Lattouf’s dismissal, they later called for Oliver-Taylor to stand down for his involvement in the decision.
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