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1 NEWS reporter Katie Bradford opens up about online abuse: 'If you're having a bad day that stuff's really hard'

May 9, 2018

1 NEWS reporter Katie Bradford has spoken candidly about the impact of cyber-bullyng.

Appearing in a clip released ahead of this week's The Inside Word programme on TVNZ's Duke channel, Bradford revealed she is vulnerable to online comments, despite the impression those in the public eye are fair-game for anything.

"Being in the public eye you expect people are going to say what they like, for example, a couple of weeks a go an ice-cream truck nearly drove into me in Waitangi and a woman on Facebook posted, 'if that truck had hit her, it would have been a write-off'," Bradford said.

"I'm barely five foot for starters so I don't think I would have done much damage to the truck, but if you're having a bad day, that stuff is really hard.

"People think, for whatever reason, that's OK and I should just have to put up with it - and most of the time you do."

Bradford also recalled an email she received belittling her presenting skills.

"Another one called a colleague and I Dumb and Dumber; lots of comments about being stupid, I notice on Facebook. There are a lot of things accusing us of having low intelligence and not being smart - ironically a lot of the time they're not spelt correctly," she said.

"I have blocked so many people now because it would get so nasty some really awful stuff."

The Inside Word airs 9pm Sunday on TVNZ DUKE, and the full series is available now OnDemand.

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