Australia: Loss for Holocaust Hoax Site

Taken from The Sydney Morning Herald, February 3, 2007
By Jacqueline Maley

A FAR-RIGHT Christian group has been ordered to remove from its website a hate-filled newsletter that refers to the "Holocaust hoax" and claims Jews have "monopolistic control" over the world's media and film.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry sued a group called Bible Believers and the man who calls himself the organisation's pastor for material on the website, which they said portrayed Jews as "inherently malevolent towards other people".

The Federal Court ruled that some parts of the website, which is controlled by pastor Anthony Grigor-Scott, contravened the Racial Discrimination Act. The act prohibits the publication of material "reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" a group on the grounds of its race or ethnic origin.

The offensive newsletter, entitled "Lies and the First Anniversary of the 9/11 Conspiracy", included claims the Holocaust had been used by Jews to raise money and as an excuse for foreign expansion and warmongering.

Mr Grigor-Scott defended himself in court, telling the judge that "my territory is the territory of God and we don't argue".

He did not disown any of the material published on the Bible Believers' site and claimed that the matters raised on it were of "academic interest".

Mr Grigor-Scott's defence was rejected and he was ordered to remove the material from the website. He was also prohibited from republishing it and ordered to pay the applicant's costs.

Before starting action in the Federal Court, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry made a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, but the commission terminated the complaint on the grounds that there was no prospect of the matter being settled through conciliation.

Despite the ruling, the offensive material had not been taken down from the website as the Herald went to press last night.