As a female television producer employed by Channels Ten, Seven, Nine and the ABC and numerous other news outlets over four decades, I felt obliged to watch this week’s Four Corners program, ‘Don’t Speak’.

I waited for the promised bombshell allegations of bullying by Seven’s boy’s club. And waited. And then the program ended.

Seven executive assistant Amber Harrison, sacked back in 2017 after an affair with Seven CEO Tim Worner, promised in the promo that we’d be shocked by revelations. But she didn’t appear, as a result of a last-minute legal warning to the ABC.

In any case, her story is not new. Nor is the detail in the sacking of Adelaide reporter Amy Taeuber by Seven.

The premise of ‘Don’t Speak’ is that we’ll never know what really happened because of non-disclosure agreements, or gag orders. And following from that, the accusation that Seven has misused its superior legal heft. And that in certain departments there has been poor management.

What did we discover for certain?

Young journalist Olivia Babb found television reporting to be tougher than she thought it would be. Producer Matt McGrane, who I know to be a good operator, is fighting Seven over an insurance claim relating to an accident that occurred when he assumed he was on shift. Adelaide reporter Amy Taeuber repeated her story dating back to 2017 when she was callously sacked.

They are all awful stories. As is the dreadful behaviour of men in senior positions who were given second chances within the network, or payouts. And the money spent seducing Bruce Lehrmann to appear on Spotlight.

Aside from Olivia’s disappointment and the treatment of Matt, don’t we know all these stories already? And how does the ABC justify months of research and finger pointing at a single television organisation?

When I was a young news producer – the only female producer in the Seven Sydney newsroom in 1991 – I was completely shunned during editorial meetings. Moving to Nine to work with Mike Willesee, I saw women embraced, literally, within the organisation. At Ten, an attractive young reporter sued the station for wrongful dismissal over an argument with a senior producer. That was 30 years ago – and word of mouth through the industry saw that she never worked again. A gay reporter at a News Ltd publication was regularly and loudly and publicly lampooned by a senior colleague.

Berated over the phone by a clearly intoxicated Gerald Stone, then EP of Seven’s Real Life program, for incorrectly signing off on a report, I was sacked for asking him to call back when he was sober.

He had opened the conversation with, “You stupid bitch…” and it went downhill from there.

“Don’t worry, he won’t remember,” my immediate boss told me. And then, “Actually yeah, better pack your things.”

These are just a few examples of what I and every other news reporter I know experienced throughout their working life. It is no longer acceptable – and yet, it does still happen, and not just in the media industry.

There are similar stories in every workplace where egos collide and money and power drives people up the ladder. In legal firms, within political parties, in medicine and academia, and I know of incidents in early childhood education and the aged care industry.

I was sacked for asking him to call back when he was sober

Back to ‘Don’t Speak’ and a word about the portrayal of Human Resources.

It’s naïve to assume that HR departments exist to provide a non-partisan buffer between employees and management. HR represents the employer. The employee is supposedly supported by the union.

Where was the union?

We heard from employment lawyer Josh Bornstein that there are many, many more incidents that cannot be reported. And Louise Milligan added this week on the Mumbrella website that “Since our promo went out and since the story (was) broadcast, we’ve been contacted by so many more people with so many more stories…”

Milligan goes on to explain that her investigation originated with a directive to ‘dig deeper’ following revelations in the Federal Court by former Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach that Seven spent an extraordinary amount of money wooing Bruce Lehrmann for an interview.

“I had been asked by my former executive producer to have a look into Seven because I had worked there and… I might be able to see whether that was representative of a broader culture,” Milligan wrote on Tuesday.

“I had a largely good experience there, and I finished up on excellent terms. Like, they didn’t want me to leave.

“So, you know, none of this was really about my experience. But, I did see a lot of sexism there, you know…

“I think those issues are far more profound now, which is a pretty sad indictment given that it’s 12 years down the track.”

Perhaps ‘Don’t Speak’ will make a difference. Perhaps it’ll encourage employees not to accept a gag order in settling workplace claims. Perhaps HR will be kinder, employers more generous, bosses less arrogant. Or it may just get us talking, which is always a good thing.

Anne Johnson is an Adelaide journalist.