Court rules Alan Jones 'racially vilified' Muslim youths
Daily Telegraph
December 22, 2009
BROADCASTER Alan Jones and 2GB radio have been ordered to pay $10,000 in damages after a court ruled he vilified Lebanese Muslims.
Upholding a complaint of "`racial vilification'' against Jones and 2GB, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal today said a number of Jones' comments were neither reasonable nor made in good faith.
The tribunal had heard that, presenting his regular talk-back slot over the course of a number of days in April 2005,
Mr Jones said Lebanese youths hated Australia and raped, pillaged and plundered the country, undermining its culture.
Lebanese youths ARE what Lebanese youths DO
Jones also identified "car hoons'' as Lebanese youths and said they disrespected the police.
He also expressed the view Australia was not a multi-racial but a mono-cultural society and this monoculture was now under threat from "enemies within''.
The tribunal's ruling said: ''...Jones' comments about `Lebanese males in their vast numbers' hating Australia and raping, pillaging, and plundering the country, about `a national security' crisis and about the undermining of Australian culture by `vermin' were reckless hyperbole calculated to agitate and excite his audience ...''
The tribunal also ruled Jones interpreted a speech made by Lebanese-Australian cleric Sheik Faiz Mohammed in Bankstown as an excuse for sexual assaults by Muslim men on non-Muslim women.
Sydney-based Lebanese-born Muslim figure Keysar Trad ("I'm satisfied that the plaintiff does hold views which can properly be described as racist.
"I'm also satisfied that he encourages others to hold those views. In particular he holds views derogatory of Jewish people.)
complained to the tribunal.
He was later invited onto Jones' program for an exchange during which the presenter accused Mr Trad, as a Muslim leader, of doing nothing to stop car hoons or speeches such as the one said to have been made by Sheik Faiz Mohammed.
The tribunal awarded the damages and ordered the presenter make a public apology, although its exact nature was not determined.
"We find that the complaint of racial vilification as against both respondents are substantiated,'' the ruling said.
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