Erin Molan’s $150,000 defamation payout is set aside as long-running ‘hooka looka mooka hooka fooka’ case against Daily Mail Australia is sent back to court for a re-trial – after judge found to have ‘erred’
- Erin Molan denied mocking Pacific Islanders on 2GB
- Used the phrase ‘hooka looka mooka hooka fooka’
- Daily Mail Australia said comment was offensive
A decision that Daily Mail Australia defamed Erin Molan in an article which alleged she had mocked Pacific Islanders in a radio broadcast has been set aside.
Molan used the phrase ‘hooka looka mooka hooka fooka’ during a discussion about the pronunciation of Pacific Islander names in a segment on 2GB’s Continuous Call Team program in May 2020.
The Sky News presenter sued Daily Mail Australia in the Federal Court over a subsequent article which she claimed wrongly portrayed her as racist.
Daily Mail Australia alleges Erin Molan mocked the names of Pacific Islander NRL players live on 2GB radio as part of The Continuous Call Team in May 2020. She is pictured in the 2GB studios
Justice Robert Bromwich ruled largely in favour of Molan and awarded her $150,000 in a judgment delivered last August.
Justice Bromwich found the article ‘never expressly’ called Molan racist but defamed her in other ways, including that she was ‘an arrogant woman of white privilege’.
Daily Mail Australia appealed against the decision and on Friday three judges of the Federal Court sent the case back to Justice Bromwich to be re-tried.
Lawyers for the publisher – and for Molan – agreed Justice Bromwich had failed to consider all the evidence originally put forward in Daily Mail Australia’s defence.
That evidence included other instances the publisher claimed showed Continuous Call Team members including Molan mocking particular nationalities.
The publisher claims Pacific Islander names were lampooned for their length and complexity and other ethnic groups were crudely impersonated with exaggerated accents.
Molan maintains she did not intend to mock anyone and is not racist.
Molan uttered the phrase ‘hooka looka mooka hooka fooka’ during a segment on the Nine Entertainment-owned 2GB’s Continuous Call Team program in 2020. Molan is pictured at a charity ball in August last year
Justices Steven Rares, Anna Katzmann and Michael Lee accepted Justice Bromwich had erred in last year’s judgment and ordered the case be sent back to him.
Issues that Justice Bromwich will be required to determine include whether Molan was defamed, and if so, whether the publisher can rely upon defences including whether it was ‘contextually’ true she engaged in racist behaviour.
Justices Rares, Katzmann and Lee also directed Daily Mail Australia and Molan attempt mediation by the end of the month.
Molan will not be required to give sworn testimony at any re-trial and the only evidence Justice Bromwich will consider is what was originally put before him, unless he orders otherwise.
Molan, who left the Continuous Call Team in 2020, was part of the Nine Network’s rugby league coverage until December 2021 when she quit to join Sky News Australia.
The 39-year-old co-hosts the 2Day FM Morning Crew with Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee. She also writes columns for The Daily Telegraph.