A tough new social media policy for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Brisbane Times and WAToday has spooked reporters and columnists alike.

It requires people to: take care with what they retweet; not use social media to make customer service complaints; not live tweet events if it interferes with their work; not share breaking news or tips from other organisations without attribution or confirmation; not use social media to directly attack rival journalists or publications and not attack trolls, even if abused.

“The revision of our social media policy has been prompted by recent incidents involving staff use of Twitter and Instagram which reflected poorly on the staff involved and on our mastheads,” the policy says. “It is also consistent with social media policies at other major newsrooms around the world. The NYT has one of the most comprehensive policies. To borrow and amend two points from the BBC policy, ‘Don’t do anything stupid’ and ‘You are a Herald journalist: act like it’.”

Several reporters told the Weekly Beast the policy is “unworkable” and could lead to journalists getting fired for what they say on Twitter. Some feel it may even be used by management as a tool for getting rid of people. However, the policy says a mis-tweet would result in a chat with an editor rather than an official warning.

The policy – which applies to all editorial employees including contributors, casuals, editors, photographers, designers and producers – says they “should not editorialise, express personal biases, personally campaign or advocate for (or against) policies or do anything to undermine our reputation and stated objective of being ‘Independent. Always’.”

Contributor Jane Caro said she abides by most of the rules but was taken aback by the “don’t advocate” rule because that’s what her life’s work is. “It’s not going to change my behaviour,” she told Weekly Beast. “I advocate for feminism, I advocate for abortion rights, I advocate for public schools. I’m a freelancer and I am going to keep doing what I do. What about [fellow columnists] Elizabeth Farrelly and Peter FitzSimons and Jenna Price? Are they going to stop advocating?”

FitzSimons is also the chair of the Australian Republican Movement, so it may be hard to stop him advocating for a republic.

“If in doubt, talk to your commissioning editor before posting,” the new policy says. “If an editor deems that a post breaches this policy, the matter will be discussed with the employee and their supervisor.”

James Chessell, the group executive editor of the publications, told the Weekly Beast he just wanted people to exercise civility on social media and that commentators would still be able to comment. He said he doesn’t want reporters telling people who to vote for, or writers swearing at the prime minister. “The social media policy does not stop journalists having opinions and there is a specific reference to columnists providing ‘reasonable conveyed fact-based comment’ in the document.”

What’s in a word?

ABC TV’s Weekend Breakfast co-host Josh Szeps is a satirical comedian and broadcaster who enjoyed some success in the United States, including presenting HuffPost Live, before returning to take up the anchoring role on ABC News this year. His “intellectual dark web” podcast, WeThePeople LIVE, has been on the top of the iTunes comedy chart in America numerous times and has had more than 3m downloads.

While Szeps has never used the word “nigger” as a slur, he did use it on several occasions in his podcasts over the last few years – well before he was employed by the ABC.

Now that he’s an ABC employee, his views on using the word are somewhat contentious. Szeps employs the word to make the point that there should be no forbidden words and that saying the phrase “the n-word” is pandering to “condescending” white, liberal views.

“There shouldn’t be ‘magic’ words,” Szeps said on a podcast.

“So that when I say ‘hey the existence of the word nigger is really bad’, the fact that I said the word nigger instead of the n-word does not mean I should get fired.”

Szeps claimed that in Australia people don’t use the phrase “the n-word”. He said: “They wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Whilst I’m not going to make a claim that a country like Australia is less racist than the United States … We have Sorry Day, an official annual Sorry Day. American hasn’t apologised, Canada hasn’t apologised.”

Szeps told the Weekly Beast: “I’ve always hated that word, and I’ve discussed on my podcast just how much I hate it. To do so, though, it’s sort of necessary to say it. That’s the unfortunate thing about words.”

An ABC spokesman said the matters raised “don’t relate to ABC content or Josh’s work at the ABC”.

“All our presenters are aware of the need to adhere to ABC editorial standards in their use of language and harm and offence generally in the work they do for us and the work they do in a personal capacity,” he said.

Hadley eyes Jones’ top spot

Macquarie Radio’s 2GB may have the highest-rating stars in Ray Hadley and Alan Jones, but they’re also the two blokes most likely to attract attention for the wrong reasons.

According to the latest ratings survey, the Alan Jones Breakfast Show is number one, with an audience share of 15.2%, making it Jones’ 217th survey win.

The Ray Hadley Morning Show is also number one, with an audience share of 15% – Hadley’s 118th consecutive win.

Macquarie Radio, now majority-owned by Nine Entertainment, recently re-signed Hadley, but Jones has been left dangling for months.

Whether Macquarie management will re-sign the 77-year-old and overlook the small matter of a $3.4m in defamation payment he racked up for defaming the Wagner family; a $10,000 donation to One Nation’s election campaign, and an aggressive interview with Opera House CEO Louise Herron, is a matter of contention.

One radio staffer told the Weekly Beast the top brass at Macquarie do not want Jones as he is a legal liability, and that there is already intense lobbying by Hadley for his breakfast spot, which is also coveted by Ben Fordham and Steve Price.

But this week Hadley himself became the story, with fresh allegations of bullying.

In a Facebook post, former producer Chris Bowen accused him of “16 years of intense bullying”, prompting an on-air apology from Hadley: “I’m sorry for any hurt I’ve caused him.

“You would be hard pressed to find anyone who has not lost their cool in the workplace and those that claim they have not, are liars,” Hadley told 2GB listeners.

The CEO of Macquarie Media, Adam Lang, said there was a “no comment” on the Jones negotiations but was more forthcoming on the Hadley allegations: “All staff at Macquarie Media are required to adhere to a workplace behaviour policy which includes a responsibility to maintain a safe working environment and report any matters of concern. Any current or former staff are encouraged to register a complaint directly with the station, as is the appropriate process. In the interest of fairness to all parties, all matters reported will be investigated on a confidential basis and the outcomes are discussed directly with the people involved. Other than what has been published on social media, we are not aware of any complaints having been made in relation to the matters raised by Chris Bowen, and would once again invite any complaints or concerns to be raised directly with the station to ensure that they can be dealt with promptly and fairly.”

Jones also found himself in hot water again this week with the ACMA ruling that he used a “racially charged phrase” during a segment last year. The phrase, which Jones seemed rather fond of, will not be used on air in future 2GB has agreed.

Turnbull’s ABC?

The Canberra bureau of the ABC was under so much pressure from Malcolm Turnbull’s office in 2018, that a senior staff member had to take stress leave, former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes told a Friends of the ABC event at Gleebooks on Wednesday. Holmes, who was talking about his new book, On Aunty, said the then-PM’s office would send five or six WhatsApp messages every day complaining about some aspect of the ABC’s output.

Holmes said Parliament House was “a very crude environment,” and abuse like “you stupid little fucker” is “normal converse”, but the pressure from Turnbull’s office exceeded the norm.

In conversation with his successor on Media Watch, Paul Barry, Holmes said 2018 marked the worst year for political pressure on the ABC in its 80-year history. The former 7.30 Report executive producer and Walkley award-winning journalist said Turnbull had a “glass jaw” and sold himself as a friend of the ABC when communications minister but transformed into a significant ABC critic once he became PM.

Both Holmes and Barry said new ABC chair Ita Buttrose had the media experience and extensive networking contacts to lead the ABC, but Barry questioned whether she had a vision for the future.