The Australian’s media editor, Sharri Markson, has outed herself as the person who lodged a raft of FOI requests with the ABC

The Australian’s media editor Sharri Markson has “outed” herself on Twitter as the person who lodged a raft of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests with the ABC for information on everything from the media team’s expense accounts to why Clive Palmer sat on the ABC’s table at the Mid-Winter ball.



Markson responded to a tweet about the unnamed, mysterious person who lodged the FOI requests by saying: “I’m not a terribly mysterious person. And my name is on the numerous requests.”

On Thursday and Friday the ABC uploaded five FOI requests and the documents they released to the FOI Disclosure Log.

The ABC is required by s11C of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to publish a disclosure log on its website. The log lists information which has been released in response to an FOI access request.

But the name of the person who made the requests was redacted from all the requests.

This didn’t stop Crikey speculating that it was likely to be Markson who asked for the wide-ranging material, given her interest in the topics.

Despite putting in as many as 12 requests, only five of which were partially answered, the fishing expedition turned up nothing ... except some prosaic detail on what Mark Scott’s media team do for lunch.

In a gossip item in Rear Window on Friday, the Australian Financial Review at least got some mileage out of the expenses request.

Markson had asked for the expenses submitted by the ABC’s media team Michael Millett, Nick Leys and Sally Jackson, the latter two of whom are Markson’s former colleagues on the Media section.

“The state of affairs is so sorry that a humble $129.10 lunch that the ABC’s Nick Leys treated us to in March, at Gill’s Diner in Melbourne, is one of only two he has shouted since defecting from those killjoys at The Oz in February,” Wil Glasgow wrote. “(In the interests of full disclosure, Fairfax Media kindly paid for our expertly prepared dirty martinis.) The other luncher afforded the Leys treatment was ABC radio host Jon Faine in June. We hear Faine, quite rightly, reckons he’s been undervalued by the $46.50 dumplings-and-green-tea meal.”

But the four other FOIs were dull:

Media Watch coverage of The Australian’s coverage of plain packaging laws.

The ABC’s invitation to Clive Palmer to attend the Mid-Winter Ball.

The number and purpose of Comcar trips taken by Mark Scott in 2013 and 2014.

Advice to the ABC board relating to Chris Kenny’s legal action, request for an apology and the Chaser/Hamster Decides team.

Alas, there were no juicy details in what the ABC provided about the Kenny affair, just an email to the ABC board informing them that Mark Scott had made a personal apology to Kenny on Monday 14 2014.

Crikey’s Myriam Robin and Sally Whyte summed it up when they said: “Four documents released by the ABC under FOI give an insight into the kinds of information News Corp journos are keen to get hold of.”

It appears the Oz still hasn’t had enough of the Kenny affair, despite the many apologies, and is still keen to uncover what went on in the ABC boardroom.

The ABC has had to apologise so many times for the Chaser’s more offensive antics the broadcaster even apologised for their latest TV show, The Chaser’s Media Circus, before it had been to air.

“It’s a shame that all the ABC’s good work for Mental Health Week (5-12 October) will be immediately cancelled out by the return of the Chaser team,” the director of television, Richard Finlayson, said in a media release headlined “ABC Apologises for The Chaser’s Media Circus”.

The most recent apology was for the infamous sketch on The Hamster Wheel about The Australian’s columnist Chris Kenny.

“The ABC wishes to apologise to Mr Chris Kenny for the controversial The Hamster Decides skit run by ABC-TV in September last year and which has formed the basis for legal proceedings. This is further to the apology issued by the ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott, on 14 April 2014.”

Just when we thought we had heard the final word on the saga, broadcasting authorities slapped the ABC again for the sketch.