Top Aussie TV Host Quits After Enduring Racist Abuse

One of Australia's highest-profile TV hosts, Stan Grant, has stood down from presenting a prime-time show after receiving "relentless" racist abuse.

Photo Insert: Grant, the veteran Aboriginal journalist also accused his employer of an "institutional failure" to protect or defend him.

Grant said he had always endured racism in his career but it had escalated after he covered the King's Coronation for national broadcaster Australia Broadcasting Corp. (ABC), Tiffanie Turnbull reported for BBC News.

The veteran Aboriginal journalist had spoken during the coverage about the impact of colonization on his people. The ABC has called for the "grotesque" abuse against the host to stop.

But Grant also accused his employer of an "institutional failure" to protect or defend him. Grant has won several journalism awards over a four-decade career and in 1992 he became the first Aboriginal prime-time host on Australian commercial TV.

But on Friday, he announced he was indefinitely stepping away from his roles hosting the ABC's flagship Q+A panel discussion show and writing a weekly column online. "Racism is a crime. Racism is violence. And I have had enough," the Wiradjuri man wrote.

"I want no part of it. I want to find a place of grace far from the stench of the media." Grant said he was invited to be part of the ABC's Coronation coverage specifically to talk about the legacy of the monarchy.

During the segment, he said the symbol of the Crown "represented the invasion, the theft of land - and in our case - the exterminating war," referring to a period of martial law in 1820s New South Wales that was used to justify the killings of Wiradjuri people.

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