The head of Foxtel, an Australian cable television provider with a bulk ownership of News Corp., has “unreservedly” apologized after a photo of him showing up in a Nazi salute.
According to Patrick Delaney, he said he thought the movement was” the similarity” between it and the one made by some Western Sydney football fans ten years ago.
In an email to employees that was seen by the BBC, he wrote,” Regardless of the context, the truth I demonstrated this unpleasant salute was wrong.”
The Jewish Council of Australia condemned Mr Delaney’s behavior as “deeply concerning”.
” Equally]concerning ] is that he operates in a media industry where he felt this was somehow okay”, Sarah Schwartz, the council’s executive officer, said in a statement on Monday. The welcome is an unpleasant and violent work not only for Jews but also for various racialized groups, according to the statement.
In his internal memo, Mr Delaney said that he had been” searching ]his ] mind” for a circumstance where” a photo capturing me in this pose could ever be possible”.
He then stated that during his career as the network’s CEO, he had made the statement that he was making an impersonation of a group of European Sydney Raiders fans during the 2014-15 season.
Mr Delaney said the picture- first published by Crikey- was” fully inconsistent” with his “values, beliefs, and community connections”.
In response to the unprecedented Hamas-led strike on southern Israel on October 7th, he signed the” Say No to Antisemitism letter” with other prominent American leaders and condemned “racism in all its types.”
About 1, 200 people were killed in that assault, and 251 others were taken prisoner.
Mr Delaney added that he would continue to meet with Israeli officials to “express” his “deep grief”.
However, Ms. Schwartz argued that the idea that Mr. Delaney may sign a letter outright against racism while also being able to perform a Nazi respect was proof that the country needed “more than simplistic pledges.”
In response to rising society tensions over the Israel-Gaza war, Australia is currently grappling with a sharp rise in both hatred and Islamophobia.
The federal government appointed a special envoy to combat antisemitism in July, and promised to nominate an Islamophobia relative in the upcoming month.
During a visit to Sydney in November, Lachlan Murdoch called on News Corp’s workers in Australia to “address and address” all kinds of hatred and said there was” no room for sophistry” or fence-sitting on the topic.
When a foundation across the world’s houses, Foxtel’s business type has been in sharp decrease in recent years, after being displaced by the increase of cheaper foreign streaming services.
News Corp announced earlier this month that it was thinking about selling the struggling give TV provider.