News chief quits STV amid misconduct row
Executive clears desk after allegations from female staff
THE head of news at Scottish Television has quit amid misconduct allegations.
Steven Ladurantaye resigned f oll owing complaints about ‘inappropriate conduct’.
Sources said that his departure came after concern had been raised by female staff. Last night, STV declined to comment on the nature of the allegations.
One of the complaints triggered an investigation by the channel’s human resources department.
An insider said the executive’s desk had been cleared last Friday, and that staff were told he was on holiday.
An STV spokesman said: ‘We take complaints about i nappropriate conduct at STV extremely seriously.
‘We will always investigate fully, while respecting the duty of care we owe to all parties involved. Steven Ladurantaye has resigned as STV’s head of news and current affairs for medical reasons around health, for which he is receiving treatment.’
The deputy head of news, Linda Grimes, will oversee STV’s news and current affairs operation. Mr Laduran
taye, 45, was forced to leave his post at Canada’s largest public service broadcaster amid a social media storm before being revealed in his new position with STV.
In 2018, he was appointed to ‘deliver the transformation programme designed to ensure STV News secures its leading position across all platforms in future’.
The year before, he had been ‘reassigned’ from his senior role at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) after a late-night Twitter exchange, in which he was said to have spoken out i n support of ‘cultural appropriation’.
This is the practice of adopting elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture.
Mr Ladurantaye said he would contribute $100 (£58) for a prize rewarding cultural appropriation – but later deleted the tweet and apologised, saying: ‘What I did was hurtful and my apology is without condition.’
He was later reassigned to work on digital ‘storytelling strategies’, and CBC said he would reach out to indigenous communities ‘as part of his learning process’.
At CBC, Mr Ladurantaye oversaw the restructuring of the organisation’s digital news operations and was involved in the redevelopment of the corporation’s flagship television and radio programmes.
Before joining CBC, Mr Ladurantaye was global chairman of news at Twitter.
At the time of his appointment, Bobby Hain, managing director of broadcast at STV, said: ‘As head of STV News, Steven Ladurantaye will bring extensive experience of delivering the changes that we are introducing combined with a strong public service broadcast background and passion for journalism.’
‘Take complaints seriously’