A former A Current Affair reporter who was among the first to expose the “vile male culture” within commercial TV has died after a nearly two-year battle with an aggressive brain tumour.
Jane Hansen, a pioneering female television journalist and war correspondent who reported from some of the most dangerous places on the planet, died at approximately 11.40pm on Tuesday on the Gold Coast, surrounded by her loved ones.
Despite suffering from an aggressive form of brain tumor, glioblastoma, Hansen’s family said she never lost her prized tenacity and determination to see the good in the worst of situations.
“To all who knew and loved my sister, Jane passed away peacefully at approximately 11:40 p.m. on August 6th,” the statement said.
‘Jane fought great until the end and never complained for a moment. She also didn’t lose her sense of humor.’
The family thanked her loved ones for their “extraordinary support, love and compassion” during her 18-month battle with cancer.
In 2008, Hansen co-wrote the fictional book ‘Boned’ with fellow reporter Fiona McKenzie.
Although officially fictional, industry insiders knew all too well that many of the events in the novel were all too true.
The book’s title was a reference to Channel Nine’s infamous firing of Today show host Jessica Rowe. A senior producer at the network once claimed that Eddie McGuire used the phrase to describe her dismissal.
The novel’s protagonist faced the same challenges of institutional sexism as women in Australian television, including Hansen.
“We felt that someone had to take a stand,” Hansen wrote in a 2017 confession, in which she admitted to co-authoring the book.
‘I found defending my position as a seasoned journalist on commercial television exhausting and depressing. We had been … beaten up by the boys’ club. We had been bullied. But we were never victims.’
She said her years as a war correspondent travelling the world had hardly prepared her for the fierce fight for equality she waged within the male-dominated Nine Network.
“I slept on the floor of the bombed-out ‘sniper section’ of the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo in the middle of the Bosnian war, and I bribed murderous Iraqi officials to extend my visa in Baghdad,” she recalled.
“I’ve watched a Taliban mullah in an interview and made him storm out. I’ve heard a people smuggler deliver a death threat under my hotel room in Jakarta. I’ve slept with an iron on my bed for protection after angering a coup leader in Fiji.”
‘(But) when we wrote Boned, we had both quit our jobs. We had young babies and we were freelancers. We had also been beaten up by the boys’ club.
‘The bad behavior we knew so well also seemed to be at an all-time high. Women were being fired during their maternity leave, doyens were being vilified as troublesome, and Jessica Rowe was being fucked.
‘We hoped that it would provide a solution to the serious cultural problem that still exists today.
‘At the core of the culture is a horrible sense of entitlement. Like kids in a candy store, it’s an industry where powerful men hold the strings of the hopes and dreams of so many vulnerable, beautiful, educated, and talented young women.
“Every woman knew that a trip to HR was a one-way ticket, leaving a trail of insults in your wake. We even heard the words come out of Don Burke’s mouth this week: emotionally vulnerable, disaffected, witch hunt. He played the victim.
‘In 2008, we chose to remain anonymous for the same reason. We knew that if our identities were revealed, we would be lined up and shot with the worn-out artillery used on any woman who spoke up: despised, couldn’t make it, no talent bimbo, difficult b**ch, dumb cunt, etc.
‘Despite a series of studies suggesting the opposite, we also felt that if we confessed, we might no longer work together.
“We’re sad that Boned didn’t change the world back then. It’s been a long road. But the rest of the world has finally caught up and we can now proudly say that we’ve done our part.”
Hansen’s most recent position was as a journalist at News Corp’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
She has written extensively about the anti-vaccination and anti-fluoride movements in New South Wales. She was a lead reporter for the media giant’s No Jab, No Play/Pay campaigns, which withheld benefits from parents who failed to fully vaccinate their children and banned them from childcare and preschools.
More to follow
