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September 28th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Updated
Columnist and political commentator Andrew Bolt has been found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act over two articles he wrote in 2009.
Bolt was being sued in the Federal Court by nine Aboriginal people including former ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark, academic Professor Larissa Behrendt, activist Pat Eatock, photographer Bindi Cole, author Anita Heiss, health worker Leeanne Enoch, native title expert Graham Atkinson, academic Wayne Atkinson, and lawyer Mark McMillan.
They alleged two articles written by Bolt for his employer, the Herald and Weekly Times, implied light-skinned people who identified as Aboriginal did so for personal gain.
The articles were headlined “It’s so hip to be black” and “White fellas in the black”.
Bolt’s lawyer, Neil Young, had argued the articles represented his client’s genuinely held views on matters of public interest.
Bolt argued his articles were fair and were within the laws of free speech provisions.
But barrister Ron Merkel SC, appearing for the applicants, said the articles took a “eugenics approach” that was frozen in history.
Today Federal Court Justice Mordecai Bromberg found Bolt had breached the act because the articles were not written in good faith and contained factual errors.
He said the articles would have offended a reasonable member of the Aboriginal community.
Speaking outside court, Bolt described the verdict as “a terrible day for free speech in this country”.
“It is particularly a restriction on the freedom of all Australians to discuss multiculturalism and how people identify themselves,” he said.
“I argued then and I argue now that we should not insist on differences between us but focus instead on what unites us as human beings.”
But there was jubilation inside the court as the decision was handed down.
Chief plaintiff Ms Eatock said she was not holding out hope of an apology from Mr Bolt.
“I will never get an apology from Mr Bolt. He made that clear giving his evidence earlier in the year,” she said outside court.
“But we will, I hope, get some sort of acknowledgment through the press that what he wrote was just unacceptable, totally unacceptable. He set out to offend from the word go and in fact he acknowledged that in his evidence.”
After the verdict, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott warned against restricting “the sacred principle of free speech”.
“Free speech means the right of people to say what you don’t like, not just the right of people to say what you do like,” he said.
ABC/AAP
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