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		</div><h2><span style="color:#2e0404;"><strong><span style="color:#999999;"><em>&#8216;&#8230;still to work out if these 4 people have been sacrificed because they were caught or because snatching kids off the streets is fundamentally reprehensible&#8217;</em></span></strong><br />
</span></h2>
<h3><strong><span style="color:#2e0404;">&#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; Australia fires cracks whip over failed child abduction story about Sally Faulkner attempting to snatch her two children off the streets of Beirut, from estranged husband, Ali al Amin<br />
</span></strong></h3>
<h3><strong><span style="color:#2e0404;">Series Producer Steven Rice fired with immediate effect</span></strong></h3>
<h3><strong><span style="color:#2e0404;">Three staffers- TV presenter Tara Brown, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound technician David Ballment, receive formal warning</span></strong></h3>
<h3><strong><span style="color:#2e0404;"> Independent review blame the crew: &#8220;It&#8217;s clear from our findings that inexcusable errors were made&#8221; </span></strong></h3>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27140" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rice5.jpg" alt="rice5.jpg" width="634" height="462" /></strong><br />
<strong>In the middle: Ali al Amin and Sally Faulkner with one of the two children she was attempting to snatch<br />
</strong></h6>
<p>&#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; Australia has fired a producer who was involved in a child abduction story that resulted in its four-person crew being jailed briefly in Lebanon.<br />
Stephen Rice, who produced the story about Australian Sally Faulkner&#8217;s attempts to take her two children back from her estranged husband in Lebanon, will be leaving the company &#8220;effectively immediately,&#8221; a Channel Nine statement said Friday. The program airs on the Nine network.</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27147" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/beirut1.png" alt="beirut1.png" width="796" height="430" />The failed child abduction</strong></h6>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27137" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rice2.jpg" alt="rice2" width="940" height="627" /></strong></h6>
<h6>The Beirut 4 from Nine TV: C<strong>ameraman Ben Williamson, Producer Steven Rice, TV presenter Tara Brown and sound technician David Ballment &#8211; blamed for procedural errors<br />
</strong></h6>
<p>The other three staff members involved &#8212; TV presenter Tara Brown, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound technician David Ballment &#8212; have received formal warnings.<br />
&#8220;The manner in which we produced Sally Faulkner&#8217;s story exposed our crew to serious risks, and exposed &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; and Nine to significant reputational damage. We got too close to the story and suffered damaging consequences,&#8221; Nine CEO Hugh Marks said.<br />
The four crew members were arrested by Lebanese authorities after <a href="https://konniemoments.com/2016/04/09/lebanese-authorities-accuse-australian-tv-network-of-payining-for-child-abduction-in-beirut/">they hired &#8220;child recovery specialists&#8221;</a> in a failed attempt to snatch Faulkner&#8217;s children Lahela, 6, and Noah, 4, from a Beirut street as they walked with their grandmother.</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27138" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rice6.jpg" alt="rice6" width="620" height="372" /></strong><br />
<strong>TV presenter Tara Brown, received formal warning</strong></h6>
<p>According to Faulkner, her children&#8217;s father, Ali al Amin, took them from Australia to Lebanon and refused to return them. The children remain with al Amin.<br />
The television crew members were eventually released from jail and allowed to return to Australia on April 21. Four people from Child Abduction Recovery International, who had been paid by &#8220;60 Minutes,&#8221; were also arrested with the crew and remain in custody facing charges.</p>
<h6><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27141" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rice4.jpg" alt="rice4.jpg" width="620" height="349" /></h6>
<h6>Ali al Amin and the couple&#8217;s two children &#8211; The targets of the abduction attempt</h6>
<p>The decision to fire Rice came as the result of an independent review of the story, conducted by the founding producer of &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; Australia, Gerald Stone, as well as former producer and senior executive at Nine David Hurley, and the company&#8217;s general counsel, Rachel Launders.<br />
&#8220;It&#8217;s clear from our findings that inexcusable errors were made,&#8221; Stone said.<br />
Nine CEO Hugh Marks called a number of aspects of the story inappropriate but singled out the &#8220;payment to be made directly by &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; to the recovery agency that had been independently contracted by Sally Faulkner.&#8221;<br />
&#8220;It was also inappropriate, with the risks involved for our crew, not to have consulted with Nine&#8217;s security advisors before the story was finalized,&#8221; Marks said.</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-27142" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rice8.jpg" alt="rice8.jpg" width="649" height="488" /> </strong></h6>
<h6><strong><span class="caption-text">Brown on location with sound recordist David ‘Tangles’ Ballment</span></strong></h6>
<p>The company said in the future it would review more strictly how stories are selected and approved, and increase oversight on contracts, payments and risk assessments.<br />
The Nine statement added that while civil claims brought by al Amin against the &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; crew and Faulkner have been settled, the crew potentially faces legal action from the Lebanese justice system.</p>
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60 minutes fire producer Steven Rice over botched Beirut child abduction story
