“Shame on Australia”

Some of the first media reactions to the wrong verdict in the Bolt Case.

Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun:

Must we always be defined by our ancestry, trapped forever in some box of race? Is someone with even just 1/128th Aboriginal ancestry forever an Aborigine, and Aborigine only? Here…

Mark Steyn at National Review Online:

Bromberg’s execrable decision has dramatically incentivized the willingness of favored groups to take offence – and dramatically constrained the ability of mainstream media commentators even to raise the issue. Shame on Australia. Here… 

Steve Price at MTR1377 on the Bolt Trial and in conversation with Liberty Victoria’s Spencer Zifcak and the IPA’s John Roskam. Audio here…

James Allan in The Australian:

AT the risk of voicing an opinion in this country, I want to comment on the Andrew Bolt decision handed down by Federal Court judge Mordecai Bromberg two days ago. Here…

Miranda Devine in The Herald Sun:

The cesspool of hate that threatens to engulf most social media was at its vociferous worst when commenting on the Federal Court ruling that my colleague, Andrew Bolt, had violated Australia’s racial discrimination laws. Here…

Piers Akerman in The Telegraph:

Given his willingness to share his thoughts on such fiery controversial topics, it is a pity that the judge did not tell us what he thought of the illiterate Aboriginal children living in dysfunctional families while other Aboriginals were being sponsored to attend indigenous forums in glamorous world capitals. This decision is an assault on free speech and a blow to an open media. Here…

David Marr in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Perhaps the Herald Sun and its star journalist should be thankful they’re not facing nine separate defamation trials. Here…

James Delingpole in The Telegraph (UK):

Australians are still allowed freedom of speech. So long as it’s the right kind of speech, blandly expressed, offending no one, as decided by such perfect arbiters of truth as Mordy Bromberg. Presumably he’s never read Milton’s Areopagitica, which addressed these issues with an intelligence and subtlety and nice sense of judgement decidedly lacking in this culturally suicidal court ruling. Here…

George Brandis in The Australian:

By making the reasonable likelihood of causing offence or insult the test of unacceptable behaviour, in any political context, section 18C is a grotesque limitation on ordinary political discourse. Here…

Geoff Clark interviewed in the Herald Sun:

He said the "tone" of Bolt’s writing was part of the reason he sued. Here… 

Geoff Clark interviewed by Neil Mitchell on 3AW: 

There has to be examples made. Audio here…