Peter Lalor responds to Craig Hutchison over SEN axing

Hutchison did not return calls or messages from this masthead regarding Lalor’s response.

Hutchison had said earlier on The Sounding Board he stood by his controversial decision to remove Lalor – who writes on his website, Cricket Et Al, and also appeared on Channel Seven’s broadcast – from SEN’s coverage of the Test series in Sri Lanka.

Hutchison said his aspiration for the sports station to remain apolitical did not meet with Lalor’s desire to continue commenting on social and political issues beyond sport.

“In our discussions, Pete communicated to me he wasn’t necessarily surprised he drew attention, that he was unwilling to change his use of social media,” Hutchison said.

“I’m not here to dissuade him from his approach. He’s a very respected journalist, he’s left News Ltd, he’s his own man. But he had articulated that would be ongoing for him. It was on that feedback, looking at it through our policy and values, the path forward was to part ways.

“Our cricket, what I want it to be is a place we pride ourselves on all nationalities, celebrate all cultures. It’s not a place where I want it to be politicised or ostracised.”

Under SEN’s social media policy, Hutchison said employees had to use platforms in a “respectful and responsible manner, refraining from acting in a manner that brings SEN into disrepute or impacts our good standing and reputation, prohibiting the use of offensive or inappropriate content”.

Part-owner John Rothfield, known as Dr Turf, said last week he backed Hutchison’s decision but was not consulted.

“I can tell you that I had no discussion with him over that issue, but I support it because of the commercial responsibility to advertisers and shareholders,” Rothfield told this masthead. “It’s naive for [Lalor] to tweet like that with limited balance.”

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