[WATCH] Meryl Streep uses Golden Globes to excoriate Donald Trump

Actress Meryl Streep delivered an emotional and searing speech at the Golden Globes, in which she criticised Donald Trump for imitating a disabled reporter while campaigning to be president, saying it “gives permission” to others to do the same.

The actor was accepting the Cecil B DeMille award on the night, and she used her speech to speak about what she said was the “one performance this year that stunned [her]”, referring to when Trump mocked the New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition where joints are curved.

“There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart,” Streep said. “Not because it was good, there was nothing good about it, but it was effective and it did its job.

“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it and I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was real life.”

Streep added that Trump’s actions had legitimised bullying and that it could trickle down into people’s everyday lives.

“This instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everyone’s life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing,” she said.

“Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”

She also called on the press to hold power to account, and said that the freedom of the press needed to be protected now more than ever.

Following public uproar, Trump had denied he was imitating the reporter.

"I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago," Trump wrote. "If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance," he had said, accusing Kovaleski of "using his disability to grandstand."

On Monday, Trump again defended his actions by reiterating on Twitter that he had not imitated a disabled reporter, saying it was something he would never do, but that he had only showed Kovaleski “‘grovelling’ when he totally changed a 16-year-old story that he had written in order to make me look bad.” The President-elect then went on to hit out at Streep, calling her “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood” and a “Hillary flunky who lost big”.

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him.......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

"groveling" when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

Streep ended her speech with a nod to her long-time friend, "Star Wars" actress Carrie Fisher, who died last month after a heart attack.

"As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, 'Take your broken heart and make it into art'," Streep said, her voice cracking with emotion.