The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal in Sydney recently found against the city's local radio. Radio 2GB and its broadcasters John Pearce on the grounds of "inciting or perpetuating hatred against, or gratuitously vilifying a person or group on the basis of sexual preference."
The Tribunal noted that it had 13 complaints about a programme of Pearce's aired by 2GB on 15th January last year. In it Pearce discussed the subject of "gay bathhouses" (saunas) with particular reference to the then pending planning application by a sauna called Roman Spa to open a venue in Sydney's Oxford Street.
The telephone debate which ensued included numerous verbal attacks on gay men both by Pearce and many of the callers, whose attitudes Pearce actively encouraged.