As we get to the top of one more lap across the solar, it’s time to look again on one of many nice Australian pastimes: suing for defamation.
This 12 months was notably vital, with the primary take a look at of the general public curiosity defence lastly raised in former commando Heston Russell’s win over the ABC, Lachlan Murdoch abandoning his lawsuit towards Crikey-owner Personal Media, the primary ChatGPT defamation case, in addition to profitable fits towards Google for defamatory search outcomes.
There additionally stays the continued Bruce Lehrmann matter towards Community 10. And naturally, who may neglect Ben Roberts-Smith’s loss to the 9 newspapers over their publication of fabric that made him out to be a conflict prison and a assassin?
As Professor David Rolph, a media regulation educational on the College of Sydney, described 2023: it was “a 12 months for big-ticket defamation circumstances”.
Presumably the most important defamation case in Australian historical past — with astronomical quantities of cash concerned courtesy of Seven West boss Kerry Stokes backing the previous soldier — the lawsuit revolved round reporting from 9 journalists Chris Masters and Nick McKenzie that was alleged to have defamed Roberts-Smith as a conflict prison.
In June, Justice Anthony Besanko discovered the newspapers proved to a civil commonplace that Roberts-Smith was complicit within the homicide of 4 unarmed civilians whereas serving within the SAS in Afghanistan, in addition to within the bullying and threatening of fellow troopers. Roberts-Smith, who denies all wrongdoing, is interesting the choice, to be heard by the complete bench of the Federal Courtroom in February 2024.
For his or her reporting, Masters and McKenzie had been honoured on the 68th Walkleys with the first-ever Walkley Honour for Media Freedom, alongside a grant of their names, the Masters-McKenzie Grant for Investigative Journalism.
Because the case ran on, your correspondent needed to persistently remind himself that Roberts-Smith had introduced the case on himself because the plaintiff, bringing to gentle one of many greatest strategic dangers for highly effective individuals who sue for defamation.
“When you truly sue, you’ll be able to’t management what different individuals consider you,” Rolph instructed Crikey.
“In a approach, defamation regulation is considerably uncommon, as a result of it seeks to make use of the regulation to change the best way individuals take into consideration you, to vindicate your repute. When you sue for defamation, all litigation is dangerous, however defamation litigation is especially dangerous, as a result of you’ll be able to by no means management what comes out in courtroom.”
Lehrmann vs Community 10, Lisa Wilkinson, Samantha Maiden, Information Corp and the ABC
Bruce Lehrmann was thrust into the nationwide highlight in November 2021 after being accused of allegedly raping his former colleague, Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, in Parliament Home in 2019. He pleaded not responsible at trial, with a jury unable to achieve a verdict. The jury was later discharged and a mistrial was declared as a consequence of a juror’s misconduct. The case was finally dropped by prosecutors as a consequence of issues over Higgins’ well being and well-being.
Higgins’ story got here to prominence after a high-profile interview with Community 10’s Lisa Wilkinson on The Challenge in February 2021, by which her allegation was first publicly made alongside an interview revealed on information.com.au with Samantha Maiden. In February 2022, Higgins addressed the Nationwide Press Membership in Canberra, and the speech was aired on the ABC.
In April this 12 months, Lehrmann filed defamation proceedings towards Wilkinson and Community 10, Information Corp and Maiden, and the ABC. Appearing for Lehrmann in every occasion was Mark O’Brien, a defamation lawyer who additionally acted for Roberts-Smith.
In Could this 12 months, Information Corp and Lehrmann settled out of courtroom for $295,000, whereas the ABC settled with Lehrmann in November for $150,000 because the Community 10 matter went to trial.
The trial is at the moment ongoing, with Higgins, in addition to The Challenge producer Angus Llewellyn, Lisa Wilkinson, and Lehrmann’s former colleagues and executives all giving proof.
Equally to Roberts-Smith’s case, a number of particulars about Lehrmann’s private life have come out over the course of the trial, together with his alleged claims to bosses that he had a job lined up at ASIO, just for ASIO figures to say they “had by no means heard of him”.
Lachlan Murdoch takes an L
Lachlan Murdoch, now chair of Information Corp, additionally tried his hand within the courts, suing Personal Media, writer of Crikey, for defamation. The article in rivalry was by our political editor Bernard Keane from June 2022 that described the Murdochs as “unindicted co-conspirators” within the disaster referring to the January 6 assaults on the US Capitol.
Lachlan Murdoch, who can also be the CEO of Fox Company, dropped proceedings towards Personal Media quickly after Fox Information Community settled for US$787.5 million in a US case towards Dominion Voting Programs, admitting it broadcasted false statements that Dominion’s voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 US presidential election from then-president Donald Trump.
Murdoch paid $1.3 million in Personal Media’s authorized prices on the situation that the complete $588,735 from a Crikey fundraising marketing campaign was paid to the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, which Crikey had initially pledged to do regardless.
Russell vs ABC
Former commando Heston Russell gained his defamation go well with towards the ABC earlier this 12 months, with the nationwide broadcaster paying nearly $400,000 in damages over allegations members of a platoon he led in Afghanistan executed a prisoner as a result of they’d not match on a helicopter.
In July 2021, modifications to the uniform defamation legal guidelines launched a public curiosity defence, which differs from the present statutory certified privilege defence by requiring an extra issue of the subjective perception of a writer.
Rolph instructed Crikey earlier this 12 months that the ABC’s loss demonstrated what the general public curiosity defence may appear like in software.
“It was clear from the [ABC’s use of] the defence itself that the subjective perception of the writer shouldn’t be going to be determinative,” he mentioned.
The general public curiosity defence was additionally going to be relied upon by Personal Media within the Murdoch proceedings earlier than they had been settled, and now has its subsequent take a look at case in high-profile surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis’ case towards the 9 newspapers.
Al Muderis vs 9
Dr Munjed Al Muderis got here to nationwide prominence nearly a decade in the past when he launched a e book about his expertise as a first-year medical resident, detailing his refusal of Saddam Hussein’s decree to amputate the ears of Iraqi draft evaders in 1999.
Compelled to flee Iraq, he got here to Australia by boat as a refugee in 2000. Touchdown on Christmas Island and finally in immigration detention in Western Australia, Al Muderis started practising medication in Australia after being granted asylum. He turned referred to as one of many world’s main practitioners of osseointegration surgical procedure, the insertion of prosthetic implants immediately into bones.
In September 2022, the 9 Community ran a 60 Minutes episode alongside articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, which Al Muderis claims defames him as a negligent surgeon who pressured his sufferers.
9 is counting on numerous defences together with public curiosity. Matt Collins KC, showing for 9, mentioned in his opening remarks that there “was a public curiosity in reporting what occurs when surgical procedure of this type fails”, however did “not contend that Dr Al Muderis is a few sort of monster. He clearly shouldn’t be. To lots of his sufferers … he’s a hero.”
The case is ongoing and is about down for judgment within the Federal Courtroom on December 19.
