A television correspondent who claimed he was sacked for refusing to work in Iraq has won his case for unfair dismissal.

Richard Gizbert, a London-based broadcaster for the American channel ABC News, said his freelance contract was terminated after he twice declined assignments in the Middle East.

He claimed he was due £2.2 million in compensation during a hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal in September.

A tribunal spokesman said today that the panel had ruled Mr Gizbert was unfairly dismissed. The 47-year-old Canadian has withdrawn a further claim for breach of contract, the spokesman added.

A hearing to fix the level of compensation will be held in the New Year.

Mr Gizbert had been employed by ABC for 11 years, but in 2002 left his post as a staff correspondent to become freelance.

The tribunal heard he had previously reported from Bosnia and Chechnya, but no longer wanted to work on long assignments abroad because of family commitments.

ABC denied that pressure had ever been put on Mr Gizbert to go to Iraq. Instead it maintained that the reporter’s lack of flexibility - and the cost of £560 per day - made him unaffordable when he was axed in 2004.

Marcus Wilford, London bureau chief at ABC News, also told the tribunal Mr Gizbert had been "an average, not an outstanding correspondent".

But the panel ruled that he had been unfairly dismissed "for an issue related to health and safety". The judgment stated: "The tribunal has concluded that the principal reason for dismissing the claimant, in circumstances where (ABC News) was cutting back on its budget, was his refusal to go to war zones."

Mr Gizbert said: "Today’s ruling amounts to a vindication for one individual, an indictment for ABC and a warning to all other news organisations. Voluntary war zone policies must mean what they say, and if you don’t have a voluntary war zone policy, courts in the UK will impose one."

Patrick Green, Mr Gizbert’s barrister, added: "This ruling gives the same employee protection to reporters as it does to other employees. It shows that the media don’t get to make their own rules."

Jeffrey Schneider, vice president of ABC News, said it was considering "all options" in light of the decision.

He said: "Mr Gizbert was not dismissed because he refused to go to a war zone. As we said throughout the tribunal, ABC News’s long-standing policy is and will always be that assignments to war zones and other dangerous places are completely voluntary."

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