The alleged culprit behind the leak of Seven News presenters Rebecca Maddern and Mike Amor slamming tennis star Novak Djokovic has been sacked.
Footage went viral on Tuesday night of the new network recruit and veteran broadcaster criticising the tennis star after a court ruled he would be allowed to stay in Australia.
The scandal sent the Seven Network scrambling to find the leaker.
Late on Friday, Ai-Media Technologies Limited, the company that provides Seven’s captioning service, confirmed one of its employees was responsible.
The company announced to the Australian Stock Exchange they have taken ‘appropriate action’ against the culprit.
A source with knowledge of the decision said the employee had lost their job.
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Employees of the Seven Network have been cleared of leaking a video of a ‘private conversation’ between newsreaders Mike Amor (right) and Rebecca Maddern (left)
‘As a result of the investigation, Ai-Media has identified that an employee working remotely due to the COVID-19 outbreak was responsible for the unauthorised distribution of the content,’ the statement read.
‘Appropriate action has been taken with regard to the employee responsible.’
The company CEO Tony Abrahams said Ai-Media has also reassured the Seven network that the company has taken action to ensure no future leaks.
‘We are Australia’s leading provider of captioning services and we understand the importance of our work in making media accessible and inclusive to a wider audience, while safeguarding the confidential information of our customers,’ he said.
‘We have long standing and strong relationships within the media industry in Australia, and value our relationship with the Seven Network with whom we have been working with for over five years.
The leaked video shows the newsreaders in a heated discussion over Novak Djokovic’s visa crisis which started early January
In the video Ms Maddern called Djokovic a ‘lying, sneaky, a***hole’ while preparing to present the station’s 6pm news program
‘This is the first such incident in Ai-Media’s 19-year history and enhanced controls have since been implemented to ensure it cannot be repeated.’
In the video Ms Maddern called Djokovic a ‘lying, sneaky, a***hole’ while preparing to present the station’s 6pm news program.
She then added: ”That’s it, I mean he’s an a***hole. He got a bulls*** f*****g excuse and then fell over his own f*****g lies. It’s just what happens, right, that’s what happened.’
Ms Maddern has since apologised to her bosses for bad mouthing the world number one.
A time stamp in the top right corner of the video revealed the culprit to be an employee of the network’s outsourced captioning service Ai-Media and cleared Seven’s employees
A ‘witch hunt’ investigation into the incident was launched by the network executives and quickly found an employee of external captioning service Ai-Media was to blame for the alleged leak.
The investigation revealed a time stamp in the top right corner of the video was not in the Seven Network’s style but belonging to the outsourced group.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Seven Network for comment.
The video was leaked just days into Ms Maddern’s new contract with the network as executives slam the culprits actions as ‘underhanded’ and will ‘likely’ report incident to police
Seven’s Director of News and Public Affairs Craig McPherson slammed the leaker as ‘underhanded’ for the video leaked just days into Maddern’s new contract with the network.
Maddern recently parted ways with Australian Open host broadcaster Nine.
Mr McPherson announced in a statement on Wednesday morning that the person responsible for leaking the ‘private conversation’ would be dealt with.
‘The illegal recording was of a private conversation between two colleagues,’ he said.
‘It was an underhanded, cowardly act in breach of the Victorian Listening Devices legislation the perpetrator of which will be accordingly dealt with when found.’
The network is ‘likely’ to report the incident to police once the employee is found.
It is not known if the Seven Network will terminate its contract with the service, which is understood to expire in less than six months.
The contract is a competitive slot in the captioning industry as it is understood captioning of the Sunrise show along costs the network $750,000 a year.
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