(The Guardian) Erin Molan defamation case: Daily Mail Australia showed lack of ‘responsibility and basic professionalism’
A federal court judge said the Daily Mail Australia showed a lack of responsibility and basic professionalism in defaming Erin Molan when the online news site portrayed the broadcaster as a racist, according to AAP.
Justice Robert Bromwich said a payment of $150,000 in damages should sufficiently meet the “sting” of the June 2020 online article that referred to her saying “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on 2GB in May 2020.
The 40-year-old denied it was a jibe against Polynesian names, that she was deliberately mispronouncing them for a laugh or speaking in an accent during the broadcast. Rather, the former 2GB rugby league show co-host said the long-running joke was making light of Ray and Chris Warren mixing up the end of players’ names and she was “poking fun of her colleagues”, she told the federal court.
Justice Robert Bromwich said in reasons published on Tuesday that Molan bears responsibility for being, at least, thoughtless as to how someone else might interpret what she was saying without the context of that story. “Dailymail.com needs to substantially improve the care that it takes, or face further and greater awards of damages,” Justice Bromwich said in his judgment. -- Freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility and basic professionalism which was sadly lacking in this case.
Molan gave evidence that she was subsequently subject to a barrage of online abuse and violent threats towards herself and family that left her traumatised.
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...-defamation-case-against-daily-mail-australia
A federal court judge said the Daily Mail Australia showed a lack of responsibility and basic professionalism in defaming Erin Molan when the online news site portrayed the broadcaster as a racist, according to AAP.
Justice Robert Bromwich said a payment of $150,000 in damages should sufficiently meet the “sting” of the June 2020 online article that referred to her saying “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” on 2GB in May 2020.
The 40-year-old denied it was a jibe against Polynesian names, that she was deliberately mispronouncing them for a laugh or speaking in an accent during the broadcast. Rather, the former 2GB rugby league show co-host said the long-running joke was making light of Ray and Chris Warren mixing up the end of players’ names and she was “poking fun of her colleagues”, she told the federal court.
Justice Robert Bromwich said in reasons published on Tuesday that Molan bears responsibility for being, at least, thoughtless as to how someone else might interpret what she was saying without the context of that story. “Dailymail.com needs to substantially improve the care that it takes, or face further and greater awards of damages,” Justice Bromwich said in his judgment. -- Freedom of expression must be balanced with responsibility and basic professionalism which was sadly lacking in this case.
Molan gave evidence that she was subsequently subject to a barrage of online abuse and violent threats towards herself and family that left her traumatised.
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...-defamation-case-against-daily-mail-australia
