“I feel unable to share the airwaves with an individual who has no regard for the duty of care we have to the public…”
It has been almost a week since George Hook made some serious blame-the-victim statements while commenting on a rape story.
Since then, both George Hook and his employers at Newstalk have released apologies, with a varied response from his listeners.
Following this, the Dalata Hotel Group pulled their sponsorship deal with Newstalk in direct response to Hook’s comments. Similarly, there were reports of staff at Newstalk signing a letter that demanded Hook be taken off the air immediately.
And today, a fellow Newstalk presenter has taken themselves off-air in protest to Hook’s statements, and what they describe as a general pervading air of sexism at the station in general.
Dil Wickremasinghe hosts the weekly Global Village show, and took to Twitter to announce her protest:
STATEMENT – Why I am going off-air on @NewstalkFM in protest of #GeorgeHook https://t.co/rT3RiBFUrd pic.twitter.com/ZYdSj7IM4U
— Dil Wickremasinghe (@DilW) September 14, 2017
The full statement can also be read here, but it ends as follows:
I feel unable to share the airwaves with an individual who has no regard for the duty of care we have to the public and as such will not be presenting Global Village this weekend and management understand my position. Most importantly it is my duty as a parent to my 2-year-old son Phoenix and my 4-week-old daughter Xavier to act and be the change I want to see in the world.
I am heartened that there has been a public outrage and Newstalk have launched a full investigation on this matter which I hope will conclude within the next few days so that I can return to presenting Global Village on Saturday 23 September.
At the time of writing, there has been no official response from Newstalk regarding Wickremasinghe’s protest.
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