Sonia Kruger ‘vilified’ Muslims in 2016 Today show segment, Tribunal finds

Sonia Kruger “vilified” Muslim people on the Today show, but it wasn’t racial vilification because Muslims in Australia are not a “race”, a tribunal says.

Screen grab of Sonia Kruger and David Campbell during the 2016 segment on Today. Picture: Supplied

Channel Nine TV host Sonia Kruger vilified Muslim people when she said Muslim immigration to Australia should be banned because she wanted to feel “safe”, a tribunal has found.

But it was not racial vilification, because Muslim people are not a race, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal said, in its decision released today on Kruger’s remarks on the Today during a panel chat in July, 2016.

“Personally, I would like to see it (Muslim immigration) stop now for Australia,” Kruger said on-air on July 18, during a discussion in the wake of terror attacks in Nice on Bastille Day, on whether the number of migrants and refugees allowed into a country increased the risk of terror attacks.

“Because I want to feel safe, as all of our citizens do when they go out to celebrate Australia Day, and I’d like to see freedom of speech,” Kruger continued.

An avalanche of criticism followed, with Kruger defending her comments.

She acknowledged on-air the following day the comments may have been “extreme” said she had “complete respect for people of all races, and religions”, and repeated her view about “the correlation between the Muslim population of certain countries and the number of subsequent terrorist attacks”.

“I acknowledge my views yesterday may have been extreme. It is a hugely complex and sensitive issue, it’s an issue with no simple answer and it’s an issue that cannot be fully discussed in a short televised segment,” she said.

Major sponsors distanced themselves from her, with Kruger going to ground and staying away from social media accounts.

Australian Muslim man Sam Ekermawi filed a complaint to the tribunal.

In its decision released today, the tribunal said Kruger’s “vilifying remarks” in July 2016 had the capacity to “encourage hatred towards, or serious contempt for, Australian Muslims by ordinary members of the Australian population”.

But Mr Ekermawi’s racial vilification complaint was dismissed: “The evidence does not support a finding that Muslims living in Australia are a ‘race’ by reason of a common ethnic or ethno-religious origin”, the Tribunal said.

“The result on this point, however, might have been different had there been different or additional, objective evidence.

The tribunal noted that while Kruger’s comments were “calm and measured” and she “made it clear she did not think every Muslim in Australia or overseas was a fanatic”, taken in context her comments were likely to encourage or incite “feelings of hatred towards, or serious contempt for, Australian Muslims as a whole” by linking them to terrorist attacks.

The Tribunal said it accepted that Kruger and her employer, Nine, were “acting in good faith without malice and not for an improper purpose” but said it “cannot accept that the remarks of Ms Kruger were ‘reasonable’”.

“She expressed the view that the size of Australia’s Muslim population meant there should be no further Muslim migration irrespective of any other matter. This appears to be unsupported by any evidence or material placed before the Tribunal,” the tribunal said.

“In our view, Ms Kruger could have expressed her comments in a more measured manner to avoid a finding of vilification.

“For example, she could have referred to the need for Australia to engage in greater security checking of people wishing to migrate to Australia who may happen to be Muslims and the need to prevent a drift towards radicalisation amongst Muslims currently in Australia, rather than simply stating that 500,000 Muslims represents an unacceptable safety risk which justifies stopping all Muslim migration.”

The Tribunal noted it “might have been possible” for Kruger’s co-hosts, Lisa Wilkinson and David Campbell, to “make this comment and then seek to have Ms Kruger agree with that”.

“This also would have likely prevented the broadcast amounting to the vilification of Muslims in Australia,” the Tribunal said.

“Unfortunately, while Mr Campbell appeared to disagree with Ms Kruger, Ms Kruger’s public remarks were still preserved and amounted to a stereotypical attack on all Muslims in Australia.”