Seven loses Federal Court appeal over Sunday Night (again)

Seven Network has lost yet another appeal over a 2011 Sunday Night story claiming a Brazilian tribe of Suruwaha Indians as a suicide cult that encouraged the murder of disabled babies.

A full court of the Federal Court of Australia found that Seven had not established any legal error, following an earlier appeal in June.

In 2012 ACMA ruled that Seven breached the Code of Practice on factual accuracy and for “provoking or perpetuating intense dislike and serious contempt on the basis of ethnicity.”

Last week the full Federal Court court held that it was open to the ACMA to make breach findings, with respect to factual inaccuracy, and ethnic or racial vilification, and that its findings were not affected by legal error.

Advocacy group Survival International, which champions tribal peoples around the world, previously branded the report “Freakshow TV” for portraying Brazil’s Suruwaha tribe as child murderers, “Stone Age” relics, and “one of the worst human rights violators in the world”.