KEY POINTS:
Embattled sports presenter Tony Veitch will not be appearing on television or radio again this week.
TVNZ's Head of News & Current Affairs Anthony Flannery said that Mr Veitch would step down while a review was conducted into "allegations made against him by some media organisations".
Mr Flannery
said there were complex issues, particularly the privacy of others, to consider.
He said because of the nature of the matter it was inappropriate to make further comment.
Earlier, it was announced that Veitch would be absent from his regular Radio Sport programme tomorrow morning.
The station's general manager, Bill Francis, told Newstalk ZB that Veitch is taking the time off to "concentrate on attending to legal matters".
The sports presenter has been under pressure to clarify reports he assaulted his former partner, leaving her temporarily in a wheelchair.
Veitch and his employers, TVNZ and Radio Sport, have refused to comment on allegations he secretly paid business executive Kristin Dunne-Powell more than $100,000 to stay silent after an attack at his house in 2006.
However, the Women's Refuge said the presenter of the Radio Sport breakfast programme, One News sport and the quiz show A Game of Two Halves should stand up and tell the truth about what happened.
An unnamed source told the Dominion Post that Ms Dunne-Powell agreed to say she had fallen on the stairs. The assault caused her to have a breakdown and spend months away from her job.
Both TVNZ and Radio Sport said yesterday that they did not comment on the personal lives of staff.
The chief executive of the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, Heather Henare, said that, as a role model, Veitch should front up over the allegations.
"He's looked up to by hundreds of young men who want to be just like him. If the allegations are true, he needs to stand up and say, 'I did it, but my behaviour was wrong and this is what I'm doing to put it right'."
Ms Henare said "putting things right" did not include paying money to his former partner.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards would not say whether the network regarded the matter as an employment issue.
However, media commentator Jim Tully said TVNZ would have to consider whether what appeared to be a very serious assault fitted the network's public image.
He drew a comparison with the reaction by television networks to sports presenter Clint Brown, who resigned from a 17-year career with TV3 after people in Taupo claimed he was drunk and abusive on a night out.
In that case, Brown was left with a black eye after an alleged assault on him. No charges were laid by police.
Mr Tully, an associate professor of journalism at Canterbury University, said television networks placed great store on the image of their high-profile presenters as people the public should like, trust and respect.
He said TVNZ might have acted more quickly if the alleged assault had been more recent. "If this had just happened on the weekend I'm sure TVNZ would have taken an immediate view on it," Professor Tully said.
"It's not a good look."
The Dominion Post reported the alleged assault took place in Veitch's St Heliers townhouse, which the Herald understands is on the market.
Veitch promoted the house in a Herald Homes feature in December, saying he and his fiancee Zoe Halford, whom he has since married, loved the house but were looking to move closer to Auckland central.
- additional reporting by nzherald staff
