Why Channel 10 is suing its former star host
Channel 10 is suing its former political editor, Peter van Onselen, for an alleged breach of contract after he wrote a column tearing into his former employer’s business skills.
Anonymous sources told news.com.au that Mr van Onselen signed a non-disparagement clause and received a financial settlement after leaving the network.
He had announced he was returning to academia, leaving his daily political news role at Ten in March 2023 after four years. It followed reports he had become tired of the commute from Sydney to Canberra.
“I’ve only been doing this for four years ... We sometimes forget the sacrifices they make!” he wrote.
It’s believed that the alleged breach of contract that Ten Network has initiated action over relates to that secret clause, which required him not to badmouth the network.
However, it’s now the court’s decision to decide whether his column — which only referred to publicly available information about the network — constitutes a breach, or whether he should be free to make such observations in his role as commentator.
In The Australian on May 25, Mr van Onselen wrote that Ten’s parent company, Paramount, was unlikely to have a promising future.
“Paramount’s share price has plummeted more than 30 per cent in the past month, down more than 50 per cent in just a year,” he wrote.
“You could choose to be a little more upbeat about Paramount (and Network 10’s) future if the streaming part of the business was firing, but it’s not.
“So what does all of this mean for Network 10? It could be fine, limping along with little attention paid to it by its big overseas owner … Since that time the network’s ratings have slowly ebbed lower and lower, elongating the divide between it and its more successful commercial rivals in Australia.”
Mr van Onselen also revealed during his tenure that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian criticised Scott Morrison in private text messages.
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