News: Marc Jacobs uses underage models in show

Designer uses underage girls on runway

Fashion designer Marc Jacobs has flouted industry guidelines by allowing two 14-year-old models to walk the runway at New York Fashion Week. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) of which Diane von Furstenburg is president recommends against using girls under the age of 16. But they are just as the name says, guidelines. Jacobs was unapologetic: “I do the show the way I think it should be, and not the way somebody tells me it should be,” Mr. Jacobs told the New York Times. “If their parents are willing to let them do a show, I don’t see any reason that it should be me who tells them that they can’t.”

Australian man sues Twitter for defamation

The Australian man wrongly named by writer Marieke Hardy as her ‘hate-blogger’ is now suing Twitter as the publisher of information that defamed him. Ms Hardy has already reached a private settlement with the man, believed to be worth $15,000, and published an apology on her blog. The original tweet read: “I name and shame my ‘anonymous’ internet bully. Liberating business! Join me.” It was followed by a link to her blog. The man’s lawyer, Stuart Gibson, said: “Twitter are a publisher, and at law anyone involved in the publication can be sued,” Mr Gibson said. ”We’re suing for the retweets and the original tweet – and many of the retweets and comments are far worse.” There was some debate about whether the man, Joshua Meggitt, could sue Twitter which is based in the United States under Australian defamation law but precedent does exist after a 2002 case where a businessman successfully sued an American company for publishing defamatory material from the States but which, by being accessed from Australia, was deemed to have been published here also.

Aslyum seekers have red carpet rolled out? Not quite.

There’s been a battle of rhetoric today as different sides of politics – and the media – claimed asylum seekers had the red carpet rolled out for them when they were released from detention. The reports centred on the fact that asylum seekers housed in the community were given basic household amenities to help them get by while their claims were processed. Mr Abbott said of the situation: “The message is going out loud and clear to the people smugglers and their clients and potential customers: the red carpet is being rolled out, there is a welcome mat waiting for you here in Australia.” The goods included fridges, prams and baby packs for those with children, a television and so on. But human rights lawyer Father Frank Brennan today told AAP: “If you are going to have people who are not allowed to work, then if you are going to maintain social harmony, you have to ensure they have something to live on and you have to ensure they have some humane accommodation. I am one who congratulates government on saying well in these political circumstances at the moment, where there’s no prospect of any offshore processing, it’s far more desirable and far cheaper to have people housed in the community and on the basic settling-in-type payment.”

Calls to ban child beauty pageants get fresh voice

Federal Labor MP Jill Hall has spoken in parliament about the need to protect children from exploitation at the hands of their own mothers. She put a motion the beauty pageants and effects on children be investigated fully. “There are examples of young girls screaming in terror as their mothers approach them with spray cans,” she said. “It is an issue about the exploitation or potential exploitation of very young children who really do not have the capacity to express their own views. This issue of body image has been escalated to an issue of national concern.” Victorian Labor MPs Anna Burke and Laura Smyth also joined in. “I would argue there’s an inherent health risk associated with (pageants),” Ms Burke said.

‘Porn teacher’ and partner share Internet tale

The Victorian teacher who resigned from his job at a Geelong school after a sex tape he made with a former student was shared around appeared on television last night and said there was ‘no safe place on the Internet’. “I think if there’s any message it’s that there’s no safe place on the internet. Where we were supposed to be, it was supposed to be a restricted site, and obviously that’s leaked out, and the rest is history,” John Walsh told The Project. “There’s that role model position, you’re kind of thrust into it whether you accept it or not,” he said. “If I was a plumber this wouldn’t be an issue, would it?” The former student, Sarah Bradford (23), also appeared on the show and said their relationship did not start until more than two years after she’d graduated high school. Mr Walsh said the irony he was a media studies teacher was not lost on him. He says he wouldn’t do it again.

Paralympian and guide dog refused entry to cafes, hotel

Blind Paralympics equestrian team member Sue-Ellen Lovett says she was asked to leave two cafes and a hotel within the space of six hours while looking for a new horse in Sydney. Ms Lovett only has partial sight in one eye and is legally blind. She has had a guide dog for 32 years. “We were asked to leave them all because of my guide dog,” she told AAP. “We were just asked to take the dog out and it was policy that no dogs were allowed.” Ms Lovett said she and her guide dog Prada left one venue after a ‘long and tedious’ argument about how Prada was her independence and mobility. It is against the law to refuse entry to anybody with a guide dog or other special needs animal. A complaint has been lodged with the Human Rights Commission.

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