The Australian reports Rice had been a 60 Minutes producer since 2004, after a decade as executive producer of the Nine Network’s Sunday program, and won two Walkley Awards for journalism.
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Former detective Adam Whittington, his colleague Craig Michael and two Lebanese men who were paid tiny sums to help with logistics have spent almost two months in jail since the operation to recover the children of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner backfired.
Faulkner was also forced to relinquish full custody of her two children, Noah, 4 and Lahela, 6, after the plan to bring them home to Australia went so horribly wrong.
“We got too close to the story and suffered damaging consequences”, he said in a statement.
As well as Mr Rice losing his job, other staff involved in the piece received formal warnings, Channel Nine said.
Didn’t consult with Nine’s security advisers.
Sally Faulkner, the mother of the children, and the four-person television crew were arrested in April, along with two agents from the British Child Abduction Recovery International company and two Lebanese nationals as they attempted to film Faulkner retrieving the children.
The children were snatched from their grandmother – Mr al-Amin’s mother – and a domestic worker while on their way to school in Beirut.
“If one gets under the bus they should all get under the bus”.
“Implementation of the recommendations of the review will assist us in making the right choices in the future”. “We have an obligation to our staff, our shareholders and our viewers to operate in ways that enhance our reputation as a leading producer of news and current affairs”, Nine CEO, Hugh Marks said in a statement.
“There seems to be a problem of lack of management control at Nine”.
The report suggested that “in a ideal world” payment for stories such as Faulkner’s “would not occur”, but accepted that in practical terms it was sometimes necessary.
Chairman of NEC, Peter Costello said after consideration of the Report, its recommendations and the response of management, the Board has chose to put in place a strengthened Risk Assessment Process in addition to enhanced financial controls and delegations. “These procedures will be verified on a regular basis”.
She said payments made to Ms Faulkner’s former partner, Ali Elamine, to have charges against the 60 Minutes crew dropped had affected her son’s case. “Until these matters have been clarified, Nine, 60 Minutes and the members of the crew remain limited in what they can say about these events so as not to prejudice any legal proceedings in Lebanon”.
“This has been the gravest misadventure in the program’s history”, Stone, a member of the review panel, said in a statement.
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Mr Whittington’s father and some of his friends have tried contacting Nine management but say their attempts to make contact are going unanswered.
