Producer Stephen Rice, who was detained in Beirut along with reporter Tara Brown and two other 60 Minutes crew members, has lost his job and other staff involved in the planning and execution of the story have received formal warnings.
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While the review recommended that no individual be dismissed over the incident, it was announced on Friday that Walkley Award-winning producer Stephen Rice would depart the network.
While maintaining it was a legitimate story, he said he felt the crew were too “emotionally involved” in the case and had let their guard down, which blurred their judgment.
He said it was “amazing to me that a program that bases itself on asking the right questions, didn’t ask itself the right questions”.
The 60 Minutes team hired agents to grab the children from a street in Lebanon, where their mother said they had been moved without her permission.
But Mr Stone said the network’s chief executive, Hugh Marks, had acted unfairly by sacking Mr Rice.
“It was also inappropriate, with the risks involved for our crew, not to have consulted with Nine’s security advisers before the story was finalized”.
“As a result of what went wrong we are now heavily reviewing our operations… sadly we have damaged the reputation of a great TV program what is important is to learn from the mistakes and we are committed to doing that”.
“We also accept a broader obligation to get our judgement calls right regarding what stories we pursue, and how we pursue them”, he said.
The group was arrested April 7 after the botched attempt, but Brown, Rice, and crew were later released after the station paid a rumoured $1 Million to Mr Elamine to drop charges against them.
“This has been the gravest misadventure in the program’s history“, said “60 Minutes” founder and former producer Gerald Stone as Nine, Australia’s top rated free-to-air television station, released the results of an internal review.
“One of the things that struck me was how lucky that program has been, because [60 Minutes] has always been prepared to take risks that come with what I like to think of as cutting-edge TV journalism”.
“Without a doubt the greatest misadventure in 37 years of 60 Minutes”, Stone told Usher.
Costello said Nine will put in place a strengthened risk assessment system.
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A statement confirmed the departure and said: “The crew continue to receive counselling related to the events in Lebanon and the other team members will return to work soon”.
