$180K for crime reporter who suffered trauma during work

An Australian court has ruled in favour of a journalist who sued her company for forcing her to cover years’ worth of traumatic events. The Victorian County Court awarded the woman, identified as “YZ” to protect her identity, $180,000 in compensation for suffering psychological injury while working for Melbourne-based newspaper The Age. YZ claimed the company assigned her to cover criminal cases from 2003 to 2013, during which she was “exposed to a wide range of disturbing and graphic traumatic events”. After complaining that she had “had enough of death and destruction”, YZ was moved to The Age’s sports desk. However, she was once again assigned to cover the Supreme Court where she encountered highly traumatic cases.