Staff at the ABC have called on chairman Justin Milne to stand down while an independent inquiry examines his actions in calling for a senior journalist to be sacked to appease the federal government.
Employees of the national broadcaster passed the motion at a meeting in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon saying an investigation was needed to protect the ABC's independence.
More than 100 staff gathered outside the broadcaster's Ultimo headquarters and backed a union motion circulated earlier calling for Mr Milne to "stand down ... while the investigation takes place".
"The idea behind the investigation is to secure the editorial independence of the ABC from top to bottom," the motion stated.
ABC employee and union representative Greg Miskelly told the crowd: "Political interference in any form of journalism is akin to state control of the media."
Mr Miskelly said the reports regarding Mr Milne's behaviour, if true, "cast a real cloud over the future of the ABC".
Mr Milne appeared to be "bowing to political pressure from ... Canberra" which was a situation no journalist could stand for, Mr Miskelly said.
Another staffer and union representative, Michael Young, argued journalists needed to know they were backed by their organisation or it will become impossible to do their job.
"We need an inquiry simply to know whether we do have the full backing at the very top of the ABC which belongs to the Australian public and tells truth to the Australian public on their behalf," Mr Young told the crowd.
An explosive email has revealed Mr Milne instructed former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie - who was sacked by the board earlier this week - to fire the broadcaster's chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, in May.
"They (the government) hate her," he wrote in an email obtained by Fairfax Media.
"We are tarred with her brush. I think it's simple. Get rid of her. We need to save the ABC - not Emma."
