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Woman wins court appeal over Today Tonight story

An Adelaide woman wins a long-running case over a TT story which depicted her as a welfare cheat.

An Adelaide woman has won an appeal over a Today Tonight story in 2011 which depicted her as a welfare cheat.

Today Tonight reported Malgorzata Poniatowska defrauded Centrelink of more than $20,000 in benefits while working for a building company, stating she had “found a loophole in social security law”.

ABC reports the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia found Seven failed to prove she was guilty of fraud when it aired the story.

Seven will now be forced to pay Ms Poniatowska damages, the sum of which is yet to be assessed.

A spokesperson told the ABC the “matter is not finalised” but declined to comment on whether the broadcaster would launch an appeal.

2 Responses

  1. I’m glad about this. Newspapers, shock jocks and current affairs shows cause a lot of anxiety and distress to people on welfare with their disgusting crap about “bludgers” and “rorters” and calls for the government to “crack down” and tighten the rules. If this sends a message to journalists and their bosses to lay off it will be a good thing.

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