Former SBS reporter Marion Ives sues over sacking after social media post

A second SBS reporter who was sacked after management objected to a post on social media is taking legal action against the broadcaster.

Marion Ives was dismissed by SBS the day after sharing an article on Facebook lamenting the diminishing number of non-Anglo faces on the multicultural broadcaster.

Ives, who was on air for SBS for seven years, said in a statement to Guardian Australia that the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance was backing her case.

“An unfair dismissal application has been made to the Fair Work Commission,” Ives said on Friday. “I am being assisted by the MEAA and look forward to having SBS’s actions tested. As the matter is now the subject of proceedings, I have no further comment.”

The Ives action follows the filing of a discrimination claim by former SBS sports reporter Scott McIntyre, who was sacked 12 hours after he tweeted controversial views about Anzac Day.

McIntyre’s case, which is being handled by Maurice Blackburn, was filed on Monday with the Fair Work Commission.

Ives shared the article by the former SBS presenter Helen Vatsikopoulos in the Conversation without comment on her personal Facebook page. Vatsikopoulos had written about an SBS journalism cadet, Widyan Al-Ubudy, who had failed to be hired by SBS despite the fact an increasing number of Anglo-Saxon reporters were being hired.

One of her SBS managers, Steven Wilson, the chief producer of SBS World News, was angered and responded: “If people think SBS is too white, that’s fine. They’re entitled to their views. But to publicly perpetuate the myth that Widyan was let go to hire anyone else (of any ethnic background) is wrong. And the people doing it are ignorant of – or blatantly ignoring – the facts … Any debate should be based on fact not untruths. Comments about not running Indigenous or Middle East stories and letting go a reporter in a headdress for a white woman are simply not true.”

The next day she lost her job halfway through a shift but the reason for her sacking was never explicitly stated.

In a farewell email to the newsroom, Ives wrote she wasn’t given any “concrete reason” except “budget restraints and reviews of staff” and she was proud of working on the great product that was SBS World News.

“After years of my loyalty and dedicated reporting it’s a shame I won’t be part of that any more.”

SBS declined to comment on either case.