Defamation case over Hamster Decides to proceed

A Defamation case by SKY News and News Corp columnist Chris Kenny against The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen, production company Giant Dwarf and the ABC will proceed to a jury.

Kenny is suing over an image broadcast on The Hamster Decides last September which depicted him having sex with a dog.

In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday Justice Beech-Jones upheld an argument that “the reasonable viewer could not possibly consider that such a lightweight show as this would be the forum for exposing bestiality”.

But he described the image in question as “a massive exercise in ridicule which is vastly out of proportion”.

“It’s an image that’s likely to stay in the mind of the ordinary reasonable viewer long after the program has finished, whether it’s funny or not,” he said.

Consequently, the matter will proceed to a full hearing before a four-person jury.

Last year ABC managing director Mark Scott said: “Personally I didn’t like it. I can understand Chris Kenny and his family being upset by it and I’m sorry about that.”

Source: The Age