A TVNZ reporter faced searching cross-examination from a lawyer acting for Talley’s Group over allegations that he quoted himself in a contentious report and referred to himself as the “baby-faced assassin” when discussing his series investigating health and safety concerns at the agri-giant.
Brian Dickey, KC, representing Talley’s in its defamation claim, spent all of Tuesday in the High Court at Auckland cross-examining TVNZ’s Christchurch reporter, Thomas Mead. The reporter and broadcaster are being sued over six stories about the Nelson-based food processor that led the six o’clock news bulletins in 2021-22.
Mead read a strident brief of evidence defending his reporting and his reliance on several anonymous sources.
He said he sought to protect current and former employees from retaliation as “I have never seen anything like the fear that I saw while reporting on Talley’s”.
Dickey was critical of Mead’s claims in his written brief that a culture of fear existed in communities where Talley’s operated.
“Can you tell me which witnesses you will call to reflect this malevolence set out in this piece, this hit piece?” he asked.
“I’m reflecting my own experience,” Mead said.
Mead was taken through the six reports in question, and through his work emails and texts. At the end of Tuesday, Dickey brought up a text exchange in which Mead was discussing his Talley’s reporting with a friend and TVNZ cameraman based in Dunedin.
Dickey asked Mead to read out a text he had sent in mid 2022.
“Baby-faced assassin back in business,” Mead said.
Dickey added that the comment was accompanied by “crying with laughter emojis”.
“I’m just repeating the joke that he’s made back to me in this private conversation between us. It’s a general comment. We would make these types of jokes across many different types of stories, and we’re just having a little laugh,” Mead said.
Mead’s quoting of a whistleblower in his first report, which said health and safety standards at the Talley’s vegetable plant in Ashburton were an “accident waiting to happen”, came in for sustained questioning.
That whistleblower was originally kept anonymous, but Talley’s contractor Luca Milani has since waived source protections and will be giving evidence for TVNZ.
Dickey took Mead through his notes and transcripts of filmed interviews with Milani in an attempt to find out where the “accident waiting to happen” quote had come from. The only documentary evidence of it was in the questions Mead posed to Milani, in which he asked, “Is it an accident waiting to happen?”
“The reason that I asked him it was because he clearly said that to me previously in a phone call, and I thought I would raise it again in the interview,” Mead explained.
Dickey put it to Mead that he was quoting himself in the report, and “this is how we will measure your professionalism when we come to look at the other broadcasts”.
Mead disputed the characterisation. “Yeah, I don’t accept that I quoted myself. Yesterday, we discussed that Mr Malani had said those things to me.”
“It just didn’t exist anywhere for us to look at?” Dickey asked.
“That’s right,” Mead said.
Another of Mead’s reports claimed the Ashburton factory had only 10-15 emergency stop buttons and that this low number raised risks for workers. This also attracted sustained questioning. Mead said he had relied on several sources, including anonymous ones, to verify his information.
Dickey said former Police Commissioner Mike Bush had been tasked by Talley’s to investigate Mead’s claims and found the factory had 153 emergency stop buttons.
“Why do you think Mike Bush is making that up?” Dickey asked Mead.
“My job as a journalist is not to present one person’s side above another, and I maintain that this source said that they were only aware of 10 to 15 emergency stop buttons,” Mead said, noting that other witnesses reached different conclusions to Bush.
“There is some evidence about the quality of the functionality of emergency stop buttons at that site, and whether they could be called emergency stop buttons or not.”
In an amusing aside, Dickey – formerly the Crown Solicitor for Auckland, who prosecuted some of the most high-profile criminal trials – fell into a maths trap of his own making when he talked derisively about Mead’s sourcing.
He observed that the 50 Talley’s employees to whom Mead said he spoke amounted to only a tiny fraction of the company’s 8000-strong workforce.
Mead said that, far from being minimal, this level of sourcing was significantly higher than in similar journalistic investigations.
“Can you run the maths? I’m not very good at the maths of 8000 versus 50,” Dickey said.
“I’m not very good at math either, Mr Dickey, but it’s a small number, small percentage, compared to the overall amount,” Mead responded.
“I have it at 0.006% from my colleagues, and none of us are good at maths,” Dickey riposted.
Davey Salmon, KC, acting for Mead and TVNZ, objected. “I don’t intend to be difficult about it, but as a percentage, it’s 0.6%,” he said.
Seemingly alone in the court, Justice Pheroze Jagose proved good at maths.
“0.625% to be precise,” he said.
Dickey noted that even TVNZ had disaffected employees who complained about workplace issues and employment conditions.
“Often those concerns are reported publicly, sometimes extensively, and considered by the public, and the public is able to make up their own mind as to what they think of those concerns,” Mead said.
Mead’s cross-examination continues. The trial is set to run until at least next Friday.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.