Reporter at Lindsay Clancy murder trial fired for smile in court: 'Dad told me to'
'I have nothing to apologise for. I smile when uncomfortable.'
It's the courtroom the world has been watching for weeks: Lindsay Clancy's murder trial.
As the mother accused of killing her three children's guilt is decided, the public has received a livestream of every moment.
It also captured video of a journalist, Brittany Romano, smiling and winking directly at the camera, seemingly enjoying herself.
Romano had pitched to Vanity Fair that she could write a story from a personal perspective, as she knew Clancy during their childhoods.
The magazine has now revoked her press credentials, after the video made headline news everywhere, stating “clear conflicts with our editorial standards and processes.”
"We were interested in the prospect of a personal essay by Brittany Romano about her experience growing up with Lindsay Clancy," a spokesperson for the magazine said in a statement.
"After clear conflicts with our editorial standards and processes, we informed Romano that we were not moving forward with her essay and informed the court that she is no longer credentialed by Vanity Fair."
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Brittany Romano fired by Vanity Fair
The moment was noticed on Monday, as the courtroom livestream camera panned across the gallery and appeared to catch Romano smiling and winking.
The clip quickly circulated on social media, drawing backlash given the grave subject matter of the trial: Clancy is accused of killing her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months. She has pleaded not guilty.
Brittany Romano responds to smile at Lindsay Clancy trial
Romano, who has described herself as a freelance journalist, defended her reaction in a series of posts on Instagram (@itsbrittanyromano), saying the smile was involuntary rather than a sign of indifference.
"I smile through anxiety. I smile when I'm uncomfortable. That is not indifference, it is a nervous system managing strain the only way it knows how," Romano wrote, adding: "I live with my own mental health struggles."
On her now-deleted Instagram account, Romano also said she has been urged to apologise but has declined to do so.
"I have nothing to apologise for. What I have actually received are message telling me to slit my wrists, threats to kill me in my sleep, and a resource of ways to kill myself, sent by people who claim they are defending Lindsay's mental health," Romano wrote.
"If you actually believed a woman's mental health mattered, you would not hand another woman a method, you would not treat suicide as a punishment, and you would not claim to protect one woman's humanity while stripping another woman of hers."
Romano later claimed that her father had told her to smile more when she appeared on television, and that she was responding to the camera with him in mind.
If this story raises any concerns for you personally, support is available through Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636)
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