Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany has issued an apology after an image of him performing a Nazi salute emerged online.
On Sunday, Australian media site Crikey posted an image of Delany from some time in the mid-2010s of Delany, who was at the time Fox Sports CEO, making the offensive gesture on a “closed set.” It shows him outstretching his right arm with two fingers from his left across his lip.
In a statement to Crikey, Delany said he was “shocked” to see the image, which he claimed showed him “demonstrating the similarity” between the Nazi salute and a gesture made by fans of an Australian sports team. “The fact I demonstrated this offensive salute was wrong and I unreservedly apologise,” he added.
Delany has followed up with an all-staff email in which he said he was “very sorry for my actions” and “sincerely [apologized] to people who have been hurt or offended, especially members of the Jewish community,” adding: “The picture is completely inconsistent with my values and beliefs, and family connections.”
The ABC reports Delany has now begun a series of meetings with Jewish leaders in Australia to express his contrition. According to the pubcaster, the President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, has accepted his “full and unreserved apology to the Jewish community” and hoped “this incident serves as a valuable lesson for the community as a whole.”
“He made it clear that regardless of the context in which he performed the salute, he understood the offence and hurt that the gesture causes; not only Jewish Australians but the tens of thousands of Australians whose family members were killed or injured fighting the Nazis during World War II,” added Ossip.
“We accept Patrick’s apology and recognize not only his but Lachlan Murdoch [CEO of Foxtel parent New Corp]’s strong and unequivocal repudiation of anti-Semitism in the past 10 months.”
Delany was a signatory to a Say No to Anti-Semitism letter sent out in November, a month after the Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing conflict in Gaza that has left tens of thousands dead.
We have reached out to Foxtel for comment.
Pay-TV and streaming provider Foxtel was recently put up for sale by News Corp after an expression of interest was made by a “third party.”
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