https://tvtonight.com.au/2019/07/former ... escue.htmlThose with long memories in TV-land will remember the saga around Naomi Robson and Wawa…..
The 2006 incident is etched in TV folklore when Today Tonight headed to West Papua to rescue a six year old boy who had featured on 60 Minutes.
Amongst tribes who reportedly practised cannibalism, young Wawa was believed to have been possessed, and the only way to ‘cure’ him… well, you can guess the rest.
But Indonesian authorities detained Robson and her Seven crew after a tip-off they were travelling on tourist visas. A big no-no when it comes to filming.
Garry Linell, who was the director of News and Current Affairs at Nine at the time, now writes in the New Daily that he was the one who tipped off authorities because of the ratings bonanza it represented.
“I wrestled with the dilemma. There were ethical issues to ponder. Moral implications to be considered. Several long and excruciating seconds later, I came to a decision,” he writes.
“In war, you can just about excuse anything. I picked up the phone and began dialling.
“Of course, all hell broke loose after that.
“Robson and four colleagues were arrested after entering Indonesia and deported a day later. Seven accused Nine of deliberately sabotaging their mission to save Wawa. I hit back, describing such claims as unsubstantiated and beneath contempt.
“An anthropologist from the Australian National University claimed on radio that ‘… the real cannibalism here is the desire of these two channels to consume each other’s audiences and market share.'”
Wawa was eventually saved and adopted by a well-meaning family. Linnell’s article, which may be some kind of strange mea culpa, is curiously in response to Tom Gleeson telling the Logies room the industry takes itself too seriously. Clearly in 2006 it did.
Wawa was eventually saved, no thanks to the Channel 9 ACA Director, and is now educated and has returned to the jungle of Indonesian Papua after 13 years, but what a disgrace Channel 9 is. You don't play dice with a young child's life just for a headline.
Apparently both his parents died under 'suspicious' circumstances and the tribe decided he must be evil and were going to eat him when he reached puberty.
All's well that ends well but shame shame shame on Garry Linell of Channel 9.
