A rightwing commentator has been found guilty of breaking Australian discrimination laws by implying that fair-skinned Aborigines chose to identify as indigenous for profit and career advancement.Federal court justice Mordy Bromberg ruled that fair-skinned Aborigines were likely to have been "offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated by the imputations" included in columnist Andrew Bolt's two articles published by the Herald Sun newspaper, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corps empire, in Melbourne in 2009.
Bromberg ruled out Bolt and his publisher's defence under a clause of the Racial Discrimination Act that exempts "fair comment" because the articles "contained errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language".
Bromberg said he would prohibit reproduction of the offending articles and consider ordering the newspaper to publish a correction if it did not print an apology.
Bolt, who writes opinion pieces for newspapers around Australia and hosts a national weekly public affairs TV programme, described the ruling as a defeat for freedom of speech.
One of the articles in question. <-- Read
I must be missing something here. It seems like an unneeded silencing to me. Even if you disagree with the man, it's better to have people like him in full view. I understand the desire to watch your "offensive" remarks. But not going so far as to treat Aborigines like children, incapable of standing up for themselves.
He's an oped columnist right? This looks retaliatory to me.
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