Sam Armytage has reportedly served Daily Mail Australia with papers threatening a defamation lawsuit over their horrendously inappropriate article about her underwear.
Armytage has been at the centre of a huge media storm this week because of the article, which was built around a range of paparazzi photos of the presenter just living her normal day-to-day life in Sydney.
The article’s original headline, which is still cached by Google, states ‘Sunrise host Sam Armytage dares to bare with granny panties showing a visible line as she steps out in Sydney’.
Now it has a very different headline, and this apology down the bottom of the story:
“An earlier version of this story contained critical statements regarding Samantha Armytage’s appearance. While the story has since been amended, we apologise for any distress caused to Ms Armytage or readers more generally.“
However, Armytage demands more; not just a small apology from the media outlet at the bottom of the story.
The Daily Tele reports exclusively that the threat to sue will be mitigated if the Daily Mail “immediately take(s) down and not republish the article”, and if Armytage receives a joint apology from both the outlet AND the author of the article, Max Margan.
Her terms must be met by 5pm today, and the three-page smackdown of a letter delivered to the Daily Mail from Channel 7‘s legal counsel Addisons reads,
“Ms Armytage is at a loss to understand the reasons why Daily Mail Australia has chosen to publish this article, which represents a gross invasion of her privacy.Ms Armytage accepts that she is a public figure and it follow that she is subjected to a great deal of media attention, including by way of rumour and innuendo, such as the misinformation as to whom she is “dating” which is also referred to in the article.”[But Armytage] retains a reasonable expectation that intimate, private information which is not known by and is of no interest to any other person would not be the subject of media exposure and comment”.
The letter states that Daily Mail had an “unhealthy interest in not only the reporting (of our client) but now seems determined to humiliate and shame her in the most base and personal way.”
“The publication of the article constitutes an indefensible breach of privacy which a court is likely to recognise and in relation to which it would order compensation be paid to Armytage for the hurt, distress and humiliation which the publication has caused.”
Partner at Addisons law firm Justine Munsie argues that the views stated in the letter “[are] widely shared.”
Hell yeah, they are.
We’ll update this story as more information arises.
Source: Daily Telegraph.
Photo: Ausforums.
