Things are not too rosy at the offices of foreign-owned regional news network APN News and Media.
APN, which is approximately 30% owned by Irish company Independent News and Media, owns a string of newspaper and radio assets throughout Australia and New Zealand, including the Sunshine Coast Daily and the Toowoomba Chronicle.
But the company has suffered from financial problems in recent times, leading to the Irish parent forcing the departure of former CEO Brett Chenoweth earlier this year, along with several other senior executives.
The shake-up has extended down the line, it seems, with employee morale at an all-time low according to several sources.
It appears as if APN News and Media general managers have been secretly recording conversations in company vehicles as a way of controlling their workplaces and keeping tabs on employees.
And after a young reporter spoke up about the practice, he allegedly became the victim of a prolonged period of harassment and intimidation, during which his computer was allegedly hacked, his phone tapped and private investigators hired to gather surveillance information on him.
This young man sent a scathing letter to APN News and Media chairman Peter Cosgrove just over a fortnight ago, entitled 'Letter from a Terrorist', of which the following image is an excerpt:
Click on this image to read the rest of the letter as a PDF.
This eye-opening, irreverent, often profane, frequently funny – but mostly heartbreaking – letter is well worth the time taken to read it.
Editor's note: In an earlier version of this article, we called the former APN employee Neil Chenoweth, not Brett Chenoweth. Neil Chenoweth is, of course, a distinguished Australian journalist currently working for the Australian Financial Review. We apologise for any confusion.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
