The 2005 Cronulla riots was a civil conflict in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It began in the beachside suburb of Cronulla on 11 December and spread over the next few nights to additional suburbs. The riots were widely condemned by local, state and federal members of parliament, police, local community leaders, and residents. Some media were criticised and well-known radio personality Alan Jones was formally censured and fined for his broadcasts during that week.
About 2005 Cronulla riots in brief
The 2005 Cronulla riots was a civil conflict in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It began in the beachside suburb of Cronulla on 11 December and spread over the next few nights to additional suburbs. Violence spread to other southern suburbs of Sydney, where assaults occurred, including two stabbings and attacks on ambulances and police officers. The riots were widely condemned by local, state and federal members of parliament, police, local community leaders, and residents. A large number of arrests were made over the subsequent months. Some media were criticised and well-known radio personality Alan Jones was formally censured and fined for his broadcasts during that week. The events were reported widely across the Sydney media, particularly tabloid; also generating discussions on talkback radio. There is also a history of conflict between Cronulla locals and those visiting from the western suburbs since the 1960s as part of a turf war between Westies and local surfies. The previous summer, on Australia Day 26 January 2005 a non-racial riot occurred with around two to three thousand young people in the Cronulla area engaged in \”civil disobedience\”, at one stage hurling missiles at police attempting to control the crowd. In December 2009, the NSW Administrative Tribunal found Jones guilty of vilifying Lebanese Muslims in earlier broadcasts of ‘Cronulla Riot’ A fine of 10,000 USD was imposed about the repercussions of these broadcasts. The court found Jones to have breached the Australian Communications and Media Authority Code of Conduct section 1, section 3, as his comments were ‘likely to encourage violence or brutality and vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity’ The court also found him guilty of breach of section 2, section 4, section 5, section 6 and section 7 of the Code of conduct for the media, which relates to the use of derogatory language and the promotion of violence.
The trial was adjourned until February 2010. The jury found Jones not guilty of any of the charges against him and the fine was reduced to $10,000. The case was settled out of court and the decision was made in favour of the 2GB radio station and the NSW Police Department. The NSW Supreme Court ruled that Jones had not breached any laws or regulations relating to the conduct of the police or the media in relation to the riots. The decision was later overturned on appeal by the Supreme Court of NSW and the Australian Federal Court of Appeal. The appeal was dismissed and a settlement was reached in November 2010. There has been no repeat of the riots in Cronulla since the riots of 11 December 2005. A group of eight Middle Eastern men had been on the beach most of the day and that there had been no problems with their prior behaviour. Despite media reports to the contrary, no Middle Easternmen converged on the area and there were no more than the original eight present. One media report stated that there was already tension between the community and Lebanese youths before this event and people, particularly women, claimed to have been harassed, almost daily, by young Lebanese men.
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