Maurizio Pascucci, the program manager overseeing nine language teams at SBS including Hindi at the time of the dispute, told the court that Jain had asked a number of times to no longer report to Merani. Management refused the request because it was not possible for her to be managed by someone who didn’t speak the language.

“This is because it is essential that the people working in these teams are fluent in the relevant language that the team is producing stories in,” Pascucci said. “While I have ultimate responsibility for editorial issues across the nine language teams that I manage, I do not speak most of those languages, so I am heavily reliant on the [executive producer] of each language team to be exercising editorial judgment over the content and communicating with their [senior producers] about it.”

The ruling said the organisation appointed three individual intermediaries to repair the working relationship between Jain and Merani and oversee her return to work. It also said Jain applied for more than 70 other positions both at SBS and at other organisations, but was unsuccessful.

Merani, who has since retired from SBS, said she was satisfied with the judgment and while “every story has two sides”, Merani maintains that “a dignified silence makes the most powerful statement”.

“I have dealt with the issue from start to finish with complete dignity,” she said. “My community has the fullest faith in me. I am very happy with my life.”

Jain’s case against SBS came after the broadcaster was hit with unrelated allegations of workplace bullying and racism in 2020, after high-profile journalist and presenter Lee Lin Chin revealed she had resigned due to concerns about complaints of bullying and lack of diversity within the organisation. Former Indigenous reporters have also described a toxic culture and systemic racism within SBS.

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