Australian senator sues Zoo magazine over photo shopped lingerie snap
An Australian senator has filed a lawsuit against lad’s mag Zoo after it published a photo of her head superimposed upon a lingerie-clad model.
Sarah Hanson-Young, immigration spokeswoman for the Green party, contends that the July 2012 article sexually objectified her and now a Sydney judge has agreed, paving the way for Hanson-Young to claim damages.
Headlined ‘Zoo’s asylum seeker bikini plan’ the piece ran following a speech delivered by the senator calling for a relaxation of curbs on asylum seekers.
Justice Lucy McCallum said "Given, to use a colloquial phrase, the fast-and-loose nature of the publication, I do not think the [magazine] can be heard to say the matter is not capable of conveying an imputation of sexual objectification,"
Zoo publisher Bauer Media refutes the claim however; stating that the article was clearly intended as a joke – adding that the magazine would house the next boatload of refugees in its office if Hanson-Young agreed to a ‘tasteful’ official lingerie shoot.
A civil trial is due to take place next year.