Botched Child-Snatching TV Producer Loses Job

An Australian TV producer has been sacked over his involvement in a botched child-snatching operation in Lebanon.

Stephen Rice has left Channel Nine's 60 Minutes after the show's founder and former producer Gerald Stone said the abduction attempt was "the gravest misadventure in the programme's history".

Mr Stone made the comment as he released a damning internal review into the incident, which he said had caused "significant reputational damage" to the network.

The show paid a so-called child recovery agency to snatch an Australian woman's two children back from her estranged Lebanese husband.

Sally Faulkner said her children's father, Ali al-Amin, took them from their home in Australia to Beirut on a holiday last year and never returned.

In April, Ms Faulkner and a 60 Minutes crew covering her story, including high-profile reporter Tara Brown, went to Beirut in a bid to get back the children.

But after Child Abduction Recovery International agents hired by 60 Minutes grabbed the children off a Beirut street, the four-member TV crew and Ms Faulkner were jailed on kidnapping charges.

Ms Faulkner and the TV crew were released on bail after Mr al-Amin agreed to an out-of-court settlement. They have since returned to Australia.

But the judge in the case has said they will be expected to return to Lebanon to stand trial if the charges against them are not dropped.

Four Child Abduction Recovery International workers, including dual Australian-British citizen Adam Whittington, remain in custody in Lebanon on charges of kidnapping.

As well as Mr Rice losing his job, other staff involved in the piece received formal warnings, Channel Nine said.

"We got too close to the story and suffered damaging consequences," Nine CEO Hugh Marks said in a statement.

The review, commissioned by the Nine Network and conducted by Mr Stone along with current and former Nine executives, cited a series of failures.

These included violating company policy by directly paying the child recovery agency to snatch the children.

The review also said the producers and reporting team failed to consider whether their behaviour could be seen as encouraging Ms Faulkner to commit an illegal act.

"It's clear from our findings that inexcusable errors were made," Mr Stone said.

The children were snatched from their grandmother - Mr al-Amin's mother - and a domestic worker while on their way to school in Beirut.

Security camera footage showed assailants knocking the grandmother to the ground before driving off with the children.

A man was seen filming from the car.