“Make a conscious decision today to be part of the solution”

News Breakfast presenter Lisa Millar has today personally addressed online trolling and clickbait press stories which republished them.

“I’d like to take a minute to talk about what went on during the last 48 hours. If you’re blessedly oblivious and you’ve just been getting on with your life – great! I’m not going to dwell on it,” she said.

“The fact that what I wore on Monday attracted obnoxious commentary on Twitter – foul, disgusting, personal abuse that I wouldn’t and couldn’t repeat – was upsetting.

“That it then ended up online on some news sites where the photos and the abuse were republished made me angry.

“Thanks for all the support, you’ve been awesome. Honestly, some of you pretty funny, suggesting if we all turned up in pyjamas you’d still be fans of the show.

“I am angry though, on this International Women’s Day. Angry on behalf of myself, and also on behalf of other women, young women, who see those stories and see someone like me being violently abused day after day for whatever reason bullies can find.

“I worry it might make you think that no progress has been made and that it’s not worth it to be a woman in the public arena.

“Well on this International Women’s Day I want to tell you the response over that rubbish yesterday actually gives me a bit of hope.

“We are making progress, we are gonna make more progess, and there are so many awesome women who we can all look up to. Let’s celebrate them today.

“And please, make a conscious decision today to be part of the solution. Play a part in making our communities a better, kinder place, for everyone.”

Co-host Michael Rowland paid tribute to Millar as a journalist and for turning up after going through “the absolute wringer in the last couple of days.” He also added restated the two outlets of news.com.au and Daily Mail saying “the editors of both websites should hang their heads in shame.”

Katy Gallagher, Federal Minister for Women reiterated why online abuse should not be amplified by the media.

“For women in public life, unfortunately, at the moment this is part of our experience. When I see it happen it’s incredibly frustrating and distressing because we all endure it, in one way or another,” she said.

“We know the nature of the trolling and abuse of women online is particularly nasty, it’s particularly gendered, it’s often sexualised, it’s often threatening, and to some degree if we want to pursue careers that are in the public life our choice is put up with it or withdraw from it. It’s not an acceptable situation at all.

“And we know that it impacts on women’s choices, and this goes back to my point about gender equality. We’re not going to have a gender-equal Australia if people are seeing Lisa’s experience, and others’ experience, it will mean that women choose not to go and pursue careers where they have to endure that kind of online abuse.

“We all have a responsibility, a broader community responsibility, to deal with these situations when they emerge in a responsible way.

“Amplifying it, repeating it, providing clickbait to generate readers or customers to your site, is completely unacceptable because it makes the problem worse.”

Updated:

News.com.au editor-in-chief Lisa Muxworthy has defended the coverage.

“News.com.au has a long and strident history of exposing abuse against women such as the Let Her Speak campaign championing Grace Tame and other victims of crime and, more recently, our Justice Shouldn’t Hurt editorial series which led to legislative change for children involved in sexual abuse matters,” she said in a statement.

“We believe a clear public interest exists in reporting on the issue of vile social media trolls and the damage they cause. Choosing to not report on this issue or to ignore it would set a poor precedent that could help ensure appropriate action to address these actions fails to occur.”