Statement from Kamahl Santamaria

A lot has been said and written about me in the past four or so months – some of it true, some missing crucial context, some outright lies and a rewriting of history – and according to an email I received on Monday evening, more is on the way.

So far I have chosen not to comment, partly due to my own physical and mental wellbeing, and – in the case of my departure from TVNZ – for legal reasons.

The only time I did respond publicly, the countering evidence which I supplied was largely ignored, and comments were edited out of my written statement.  What became apparent was that stories were going to be written regardless, mostly with quotes from anonymous sources, and so I chose not to counter them.

Now, a Singapore-based journalist with the BBC (who was formerly an Al Jazeera producer in Doha) has emailed me with a number of allegations from my time at Al Jazeera, which would be published after 72 hours if I gave no response.

The allegations are broad and with no particulars – making it difficult for anyone to respond to – so I will be as interested as anyone to read the article when it is published.  The fact however that it is “a story which includes several allegations” against me makes me wonder if the alleged behaviour of other people at Al Jazeera will finally be attributed to named individuals, or if I will remain the apparent face and name behind every alleged wrongdoing that happened there.

None of this, of course, supersedes the fact that there are allegations to address, and that will be done through the proper channels in due course.

More importantly however, and as I am now finally speaking publicly, I want to apologise for any and all behaviour that may have made anyone feel uncomfortable at any time.  It has been mortifying to discover that my actions have caused people to feel uncomfortable around me.  It has never been my intention to make people feel that way, and I offer my sincerest apologies to them and anyone else affected by my behaviour.

What I’ve come to understand is that what I previously considered to be flirtatious, over-friendly, ‘just a bit of banter’, or simply within the bounds of acceptable in the prevailing newsroom culture was, in fact, not.  As a journalist, and a person, I should have done better.  I should have been better.

These past months have been humbling.  I’ve had to confront a lot of uncomfortable things about myself, and my family has been forced to look at me in a different light.  They have also had to endure a lot of invasive and unwanted attention from members of the news media.

At this stage, I have no further comment to make and would ask that members of the media stop coming to my home, and the homes of my family members.