Updated ,first published
Television presenter Karl Stefanovic’s controversial podcast interview with British far-right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson has been removed from YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Instagram less than 12 hours after it debuted.
But One Nation leader Pauline Hanson later posted the entire deleted podcast on her YouTube channel, and accused Stefanovic’s employer Nine of trying to sack the presenter over the interview.
“It looks like they’re trying to sack my good friend Karl Stefanovic for this video with Tommy Robinson!” she wrote on Instagram.
Stefanovic, the host of Nine’s Today show, who has increasingly cast himself as a culture warrior, had told Robinson he admired his “tenacity” and “courage” in “trying to stand up for what you believe is right” in an interview lasting almost an hour on Stefanovic’s self-titled YouTube program in which the pair discussed immigration, Islam and Australian politics.
In a statement, a spokesman for Nine emphasised that Stefanovic’s show was produced independently of the network. “Nine has no involvement, including in the guest selection and other editorial processes,” the spokesman said, but he added: “However, Nine is taking this matter seriously.”
On Wednesday morning, the Robinson episode was unavailable on YouTube, while Stefanovic’s interview with another UK right-wing figure, former Special Forces soldier Ant Middleton, remains live. Sources familiar with the matter said the podcast episode was not removed by the tech platforms where it disappeared, including YouTube and Apple Podcasts. Posts with short clips of the Robinson interview remain on Stefanovic’s X account.
Stefanovic, who is in the UK and not on Nine’s screens on Wednesday, was contacted for comment. Keshnee Kemp, who describes herself as a “founding partner” of the podcast and serves as its producer, was also contacted for comment.
The activist group Mad F–king Witches, which successfully pressured advertisers to avoid radio company ARN over broadcaster Kyle Sandilands’ history of crude and sexualised remarks, threatened a similar campaign against Stefanovic on Tuesday.
“We’re considering running a new campaign protesting that one of @Channel9’s main “stars” is now interviewing violent fascists on his podcast,” the group posted on X.
Nine is the publisher of this masthead.
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Kishor Napier-Raman is a senior business writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a CBD columnist and reporter in the federal parliamentary press gallery.Connect via X or email.
Rob Harris is the national correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Canberra. He is a former Europe correspondent.Connect via email.
