Stephen Cook vs Herald on Sunday

I got this e-mailed to me:

HERALD ON SUNDAY IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AUTHORITY

The controversial and much-rumored-about court case between award winning journalist Stephen Cook and his former employer the Herald on Sunday – where he was employed as assistant editor until earlier this year – has been assigned a hearing date

This week’s hearing will be open to the public.

Date: 2 July, 2009

Time: 9.00am

Location: Employment Relations Authority, Level 10, The 280 Centre280 Queen Street, Auckland central.

Counsel for Stephen Cook – Chris Comeskey

Counsel for the Herald on Sunday – Champan Tripp

Cook is the former Assistant Editor of the HoS. His last articles appeared in late September 2008. Ironically he won a 2009 Qantas Award for feature writing for an article on the pain of parole.

He attracted some controversy in when he pressured Debbie Gerbich (who had complained about Brad Shipton) into giving an interview, amidst revelation that she was advertising for bondage partners. Gerbich later commited suicide.

There has been some interesting speculation on the nature of the parting of the ways, and the court case sounds most interesting.