Channel Seven, its television presenter Samantha Armytage and commentator Prue MacSween will be sued in the federal court for racial vilification over a segment on the channel’s Sunrise program in 2018.
The decision to take the complaint to the federal court comes after settlement discussions at the Australian Human Rights Commission fell through.
The complaint focuses on a segment discussing the removal of Aboriginal children involving Armytage, MacSween and radio host Ben Davis, in which MacSween suggests a second stolen generation was needed to help Aboriginal kids.
The segment was found to have breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice .
Aboriginal elder Aunty Rhonda Dixon-Grovener, who is leading the complaint, says the group just want to see “accountability and equality.”
BREAKING: Channel 7, Samantha Armytage and Prue McSween to be sued in Federal Court for Racial Vilification pic.twitter.com/HR4q9IbvXt
— Lynda-June Coe (@IndigenousX) June 11, 2020
In a statement on Thursday, Ms Dixon-Grovener said: “Sunrise…platformed wealthy white women calling for a Stolen Generations 2.0 as a means of salvation for our people. This shameful, profoundly hurtful and devastating display of racism was broadcast by a commercial television station into homes right across Australia.”
The Sunrise segment was also the subject of a defamation case brought by members of the Yirrkala Aboriginal Community who were featured in unrelated file footage during the segment and who also sued for breach of privacy, breach of confidence, race discrimination and breach of Australian consumer law.
