Journalists boycott SEN after sacking of pro-Palestine cricket commentator

Earlier this week, veteran freelance cricket commentator and journalist Peter Lalor was axed from radio station SEN’s cricket coverage midway through the Australian men’s Test tour of Sri Lanka due to his social media posts about Palestine. 

Lalor, who over the past 15 months has posted on X consistently about the plight of Palestinians in the face of Israel’s onslaught of Gaza following the October 7 attacks, and of Israel’s recent bombardment of the occupied territories, took to Cricket Et Al to announce his departure: “I’m sure it will come as a relief to some to learn that after 10 years you will not be hearing my voice on SEN anymore”. 

Several sports journalists in the Australian press pack have told Crikey they have decided to boycott SEN following the decision, committing to not work with the network in future. The Australian press pack is a small, tight-knit group, with Lalor well-loved among it.

“SEN happy to give Tom Morris a chance after his whole ordeal, but Pete shares his political belief and it’s out on the street,” said one journalist.

Hejaz Financial Solutions, which prominently sponsored SEN in 2024, said the Lalor axing had solidified its decision to not continue business with the radio station: “Given what has since transpired, we are even more confident in our decision and have no plans to revisit the partnership moving forward”. Following questions from Crikey, Hejaz posted a statement on social media to the same effect. 

Lalor alluded to social media complainants on X as being instrumental in his departure, describing the website as a “sewer”. Ralph Horowitz, a high-profile Melbourne sports media personality who has worked with SEN, its chief executive Craig Hutchison and in football extensively in the past, said he was “delighted” if any of his complaints on social media were related to Lalor’s departure. 

Lalor said the end of his engagement with SEN followed calls from senior management who said there were “serious organisations making complaints”, and another from Hutchison who asked Lalor if he “didn’t care that [his] retweeting of events in Gaza made Jewish people in Melbourne feel unsafe”: 

The following day Hutchison told me that because the ‘sound of my voice made people feel unsafe’ and that people are ‘triggered by my voice’, I could not cover the cricket for them any more.

In his statement on Cricket Et Al, Lalor wrote, “I retweeted posts around the October 7 attack by Hamas; since the IDF’s campaign in Gaza the majority of my retweeted posts have been about the sufferings of Palestinians. The asymmetry of my retweeting reflects what can now surely be seen as the asymmetry of the suffering.

“I am moved by the deaths of innocents. That shouldn’t be too difficult a position to understand. I will continue to have sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinian people just as I will continue to be appalled by acts of antisemitism and terrorism.”

Lalor declined to comment further when contacted, saying he wasn’t interested in dragging the matter out further. He confirmed he was not considering legal action. 

When SEN is in the media spotlight, it is understood Hutchison’s usual internal practice is to clarify matters with his staff via prompt all-staff meetings, but that no such meeting or communication took place following the news of the Lalor decision. 

Crikey sent a series of questions to Hutchison regarding the decision, including which organisations had made complaints, whether SEN was comfortable ending working relationships based on political opinions and if staff were free to express a diversity of political opinions, why SEN had engaged Lalor consistently over the past 15 months, why he hadn’t contacted his wider staff regarding the Lalor news, whether he anticipated sponsor or partner backlash, and whether he would be open to Lalor returning to the network in the future. 

Hutchison declined to answer, directing Crikey to a short statement provided to the Nine papers. 

“We’ve been in dialogue through the back half of the [first] Test about some of the commentary on Peter’s private social media feed. Peter and I have a different view of the impact of that in the Australian community,” read the statement. 

“SEN Cricket is a celebration of differences and nationalities and a place where our SEN audience can escape what is an increasingly complex and sometimes triggering world. We respect Pete as a journalist and long-time contributor to the game but also acknowledge the fear that many families in our community feel right now, and we also need to respect that.”

SEN shareholder John Rothfield, who has also worked with Horowitz in the past, told the Nine papers he backed the decision to dismiss Lalor on commercial grounds.

SEN commentator Bharat Sundaresan described Lalor as a “righteous, compassionate and kind man” in a message of support on social media. Public messages of support also came from Code Sports’ chief cricket writer Daniel Cherny and Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja.

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