According to a court, Erin Molan’s use of the words “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” in a radio broadcast would have been offensive, but her actions were not racist.
Although Molan prevailed in her defamation case against Daily Mail Australia, it was determined that her on-air remarks were “ignorant or inconsiderate.”
In a decision handed out in Sydney on Tuesday morning, Justice Robert Bromwich found substantially in Molan’s favor and granted her $150,000.
The broadcaster filed a Federal Court lawsuit against Daily Mail Australia for articles she said painted her as a racist and “an arrogant lady of white privilege”
In a 2020 episode of the Continuous Call Team show on 2GB, operated by Nine Entertainment, Molan said, “Hooka looka mooka hooka fooka.”
While Molan believed Daily Mail Australia had accused her of being racist, Justice Bromwich decided that the publication had not really made that claim.
The remark “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” would have offended someone, “whether unknowingly or carelessly,” but Molan had refused to admit that she had done “even the tiniest thing wrong,” according to him.
Erin Molan, a member of The Continuous Call Team on 2GB radio, is accused by Daily Mail Australia of making fun of the names of Pacific Islander NRL players live on air. The 2GB studios are where she is depicted.
Although Molan prevailed in her defamation case against Daily Mail Australia, it was determined that she was “ignorant or inconsiderate” when she made those statements on television.
During a part on the Continuous Call Team show on 2GB, owned by Nine Entertainment, Molan said, “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka.” Pictured in August at a charity gala is Molan.
While claiming not to be disparaging Polynesians, Molan made the remark in response to a prior on-air item regarding the names of Pacific Islander football players.
Justice Bromwich concluded that Daily Mail Australia had incorrectly claimed Molan had “callously and intentionally” insulted the names of Pacific Islanders before lying about having done so by saying she was making an inside joke.
Additionally, the publisher falsely claimed she had refused to apologize “despite the offense she had caused the Polynesian NRL community and their cultural history, noting that this aspect is offset to some extent because I have found that the contextual imputation that she caused such offence is substantially true.”
The publisher had falsely claimed that Molan was unqualified to commentate for the NRL because of his rude and inept failure to pronounce the names of Polynesian players, according to Justice Bromwich.
He concluded that the claim that Molan was “an arrogant lady of white privilege for acting in this manner” was unfounded.
Justice Bromwich concluded that there was cause for damage mitigation.
The obvious reality is that Ms. Molan was not only likely to create offenses by shouting, “Hooka, looka, mooka, hooka, fooka,” but I am firmly convinced that she did so for that purpose alone, the judge decided.
Each side “had a measure of success and a measure of failure,” Justice Bromwich decided, but Molan had succeeded in proving she had been slandered.
She is therefore entitled to a certain amount of compensation to restore the harm done to her reputation, to make up for any injured sentiments, and to vindicate her.
The statements made by Molan about aggravation, according to Justice Bromwich, “overstate the facts” and “fail to recognise or admit that she had done even the tiniest thing wrong, capable of causing actual offence.”
The aim of Daily Mail Australia was to During the radio show, Molan often mocked individuals from ethnic origins by speaking with foreign accents, which she denied.
A number of portions in which Molan employed voices were presented to the court by the publisher, including one that the publisher said was an effort by Molan to sound like an Asian prostitute.
Molan’s closing arguments argued that none of her words or behavior was racist, however Daily Mail Australia dismissed this claim.
The publisher said in a document submitted to the court that “it would be a daring argument at any moment in the previous century but is more so today, in 2021…”
According to Daily Mail Australia, Molan’s definition of racism excluded unconscious and casual racism since it needed a definite desire to be racist.
The publisher had argued that Molan’s restrictive definition should not be accepted since the “pernicious repercussions of racism”—whether overt, unconscious, or casual—were now generally known.
According to Daily Mail Australia, “The result of doing so would be, it is suggested, to legitimize behaviour that is discriminatory and to condone it.”
In addition, the publisher argued that, according to Molan, racism should not be assessed from the perspective of those who could be offended but rather from that of a “average sensible listener.”
The newspaper said that “[Molan’s] recommended approach to the idea of racism’s substance has lost touch with the reality of that perniciously immoral behavior.”
The owner of 2GB, Nine Entertainment, as well as Molan herself said that her “hooka looka” remark was in reference to a tale that colleague presenter Darryl Brohman had shared live on air on April 5, 2020. Molan is featured with colleagues Nine commentators Darren Lockyer and Wally Lewis in the center.
In her defamation lawsuit, Molan highlighted two tweets and an article in which she claimed Daily Mail Australia had called her “an arrogant lady of white privilege” and a racist.
She constantly denied being racist or engaging in casual racism when testifying before Justice Robert Bromwich in August of last year while sobbing.
If the community’s expectations and standards have altered, there will be a clear window of opportunity for reflection after this, Molan assured the judge.
For the publication, Barrister Bruce McClintock SC played Molan a number of audio snippets from between 2017 and 2019 in which the now-39-year-old used several accents.
At the suggestion of the show’s then-host Ray Hadley, Molan made an effort at a Chinese accent in a segment dated April 1, 2017.
I’m really searching, Herro,” she said.
I’ve loved you for a very long time, and you’re a really gorgeous guy. Oh, and you like to circle around with me.
Molan said that she was reciting from a movie she had not watched and was unable to identify, denying that she had been trying to impersonate a Chinese prostitute.
Later, she came to terms with the fact that the Vietnam War classic Full Metal Jacket had a scene in which a prostitute approached a patron at a bar.
Molan also denied making fun of the alleged speech patterns of Chinese people.
To ridicule is to act cruelly, according to Molan. “I’ve never acted cruelly against anybody in my life.”
A “despicable act of casual racism,” a “very horrifyingly racist thing,” and a “ugly racial caricature” were not the intentions of Molan when she adopted the accent.
She said, “I would never think that an Asian person, an Asian lady, or a Chinese woman is a prostitute.”
Molan often said that she never made fun of the names of Pacific Islander athletes and claimed that she was frequently called “Moley, Moley, Moley.”
The head of content for Nine Radio, Greg Byrnes, reportedly encouraged Molan to apologize after the publishing of her “hooka looka” remark, which caused a “firestorm.”
Although Molan said she didn’t object to such advice, she added that she didn’t want to apologize since she didn’t think she had broken any laws.
Instead, she expressed regret for any “pain and offense” her “hooka looka mooka hooka fooka” statement may have caused due to the way Daily Mail Australia had covered it.
Molan said, “I wouldn’t apologize for something I haven’t done.”
In a tweet, Molan had called her “hooka looka” remark “clumsy and insensitive.” She thought Tom Malone, managing director of Nine Radio, had added the word “inappropriate” to that assertion.
Mr. McClintock aired a clip from March 17, 2018 in which Molan playfully questioned if his use of a “Japanese” accent to say “oh yor soh goo” and “you like raw feesh?” was racist.
According to Molan, the term “raw feesh” refers to sushi, which she consumes often, and is not a sexual allusion.
The term “little spring rolls” had been used to describe Brohman’s penis.
Molan said that the Continuous Call Team program was sometimes inappropriate but disputed that any of her accents or remarks were racist.
We often stretch the limits, she said.
Before the Daily Mail Australia report was published, according to Molan, no one on the Continuous Call Team had ever complained about racism.
Mr. McClintock told Molan that if there had been no complaints, an on-air remark may have been “just as bigoted.”
She said, “We never brought race into it.” Race and Polynesia were brought up by The Daily Mail.
Mr. McClintock queried Molan about whether she believed that making fun of Polynesian names would disqualify one from commentating on the NRL.
‘Yes,’ she said.
The broadcaster sued Daily Mail Australia over publications she says portrayed her as racist
Mr McClintock had alleged the Continuous Call Team regularly engaged in casual racism, citing Molan laughing ‘hysterically’ at Brohman’s accents. Molan denied it.
Molan said she in fact often tried to pull panellists up if she thought someone was going too far but stopped short of agreeing she was the show’s ‘moral guardian’.
‘I think it’s very obvious from the clips that I’m not a PC policeman,’ she said. ‘I wouldn’t call myself the conscience of the of the program.’
Molan said the show’s humour was ‘self-deprecating’ but if times had changed and putting on foreign accents was no longer acceptable, ‘I’m prepared to have that discussion’.
‘The world is changing very quickly and if there are suddenly things we cannot do, that’s fine. I’m open to that.’
Molan wept as she said after publication of reaction to her ‘hooka looka’ comment she had suffered a barrage of social media abuse.
Molan was once part the Nine Network’s rugby league coverage and now co-hosts the 2Day FM Morning Crew with Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee. She is pictured working for Nine
‘I was worried that people had read the articles and the stories and would think that I was a racist,’ she said. ‘And I was worried that people might berate me in the street.
‘It was probably the lowest that I’d been and probably have ever been.’
Molan has told the court the accusations of racism had changed her forever.
‘I’m different,’ she said. ‘I won’t recover until this is over and even then I’m not sure I will ever really recover.’
Molan explained her ‘hooka looka’ comment on May 30, 2020 came after program host Mark Levy referred to father and son commentators Ray and Chris Warren.
She had thought her fellow panellists would immediately understand her remark as a reference to a story Brohman had previously told about the Warrens.
On April 5, 2020 Brohman had recreated a debate between the Warrens over how to pronounce the name of Haumole Olakau’atu, a Manly forward of Tongan decent.
Brohman took on the voice roles of both Warrens as he told the story.
Molan alleged Daily Mail Australia portrayed her as ‘a racist’ and an ‘arrogant woman of white privilege’ who refused to apologise for deliberately mocking Pacific Islander names. Molan is pictured with her father, Senator Jim Molan
‘His name had about 30 letters in it and I had trouble pronouncing it so I asked Chris “How do you pronounce this bloke’s name?”‘ Brohman said.
‘He said, “Well dad and I have been discussing this today… and dad thought his name was Chuka-lala-lulu.
‘And I said, ‘Well, dad, I think it’s Chuka-lala-lulu-lulu, and he says, “Chris, that’s incorrect – it’s Chukaka-lulalulalo”.’
Two months later when Levy referred to the Warrens calling an upcoming game Molan had exclaimed, ‘Dad, Dad’, before saying ‘hooka looka mooka hooka fooka’.
Molan denied the voice she adopted was meant to sound Polynesian. ‘That was Chris and Ray Warren’s voice,’ Molan told the court.
‘It was poking fun at a father and a son trying to get a name right.’
Barrister Kieran Smark SC said his client had ‘said some gibberish syllables’ while referring to a ‘funny story’ that had previously been told on air.
‘What has happened was taken completely out of context and distorted by the Daily Mail and what that in turn did was set running a social media frenzy,’ Mr Smark said.
In a tweet on June 10, 2020, Molan denied making fun of any Polynesian players’ names or refusing to apologize. According to Daily Mail Australia, both claims are false.
The Continuous Call Team, according to Mr. Smark, is a live, levity-filled, irreverent, unscripted, and sometimes “silly” broadcast.
The Warren anecdote was again delivered by Brohman on October 5, 2019, and April 12, 2020; as it was well known by the audience, Molan’s reaction to it was not a “inside joke.”
On June 4, 2020, Daily Mail Australia published its first piece regarding the “hooka looka” statement; however, that item was not the focus of the legal dispute.
In a follow-up article that appeared on June 5 and two tweets that appeared on June 5 and 6, Molan claimed the newspaper had defamed her by, among other things, calling her a racist.
The broadcaster also said that after purposefully making fun of the names of Pacific Islanders on television, she was perceived as being so heartless that she did not offer an apology.
Both Nine Entertainment, owner of 2GB, and Molan herself said her ‘hooka looka’ comment was referencing a story fellow broadcaster Darryl Brohman told on air on April 5, 2020
Molan alleged Daily Mail Australia portrayed her as an ‘arrogant woman of white privilege’ who refused to apologise for deliberately mocking Islander names.
The publication in its defence argued these imputations were substantially true, and that her conduct on air was ‘objectively racist’.
Molan claimed the June 5, 2020 article also portrayed her as ‘so disrespectful and incompetent that she is unfit to be an NRL commentator’.
She alleged the article and tweets left her ‘gravely injured in her character and in her personal and professional reputation’.
Molan, who left the Continuous Call Team in 2020, was part of the Nine Network’s rugby league coverage until December last year when she quit to join Sky News Australia.
She co-hosts the 2Day FM Morning Crew with Dave Hughes and Ed Kavalee. The also writes columns for The Daily Telegraph.