Who is Gold Logie winner, Sonia Kruger, and why are people bringing up her previous comments?

The finest stars of Australian TV were out in full force on Sunday evening as they were celebrated at the 63rd Annual Logie Awards. 

The ceremony was hosted by comedian and radio host Sam Peng and was held at The Star casino in Sydney and broadcast on the channel Seven Network. 

The biggest winners of the night were Home and Away who won the award for the Most Popular Drama Series, Sam Neill won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor. The most prestigious award of the night went to Sonia Kruger who won the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television.

Sonia Kruger, 57, is the TV presenter for Australian versions of hit shows such as The Voice, Dancing With The Stars and Big Brother. The TV host accepted the award wearing a stunning rainbow coloured one shoulder dress by Australian designer Sean Rentero.

However her big win faced backlash after comments she made back in 2016 when she called for a ban on Muslim migration. Sonia said “Personally, I would like to see it stop now for Australia because I want to feel safe as all of our citizens do when we go out to celebrate Australia Day.” The TV host explained that she had “a lot of good friends” who were Muslims and peace loving people but there were “fanatics”.  

In 2019, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that Sonia's comments would likely have encouraged “hatred towards, or serious contempt for, Australian Muslims by ordinary members of the Australian population”.

Despite the backlash the The Voice host was later found not guilty of racial vilification and the complaint was dismissed as the Muslim community in Australia did not have 'a common ethno-religious origin'. 

What are the Logie Awards? 

The Logie Awards is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine TV Week. 

Why is it called Logie? 

The very first TV Awards from TV Week, for the year 1958, were announced in the magazine in January 1959. Graham Kennedy, who won the award for Best Male Personality, named the award 'Logie' after Scottish engineer John Logie-Baird, who developed the first television technology.