Australia: PhD student Michael Noonan has launched a $250,000 lawsuit against two academics from the film and television school at Queensland University of Technology over comments they made over part of his thesis in a newspaper article.
The University staff described the TV comedy 'Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains', which formed part of Noonan's thesis, as exploitative and called it 'amoral trash'.
Noonan argues that their remarks caused him embarrassment and distress by implying that he is 'repugnant', 'ignorant', and 'unethical'. He was a third of the way through his PhD at the time of the incident.
