LIBEL AND SLANDER – AUSTRALIA

Ten baulks at Wilkinson’s $1.8m claim for costs

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Original article by Ellie Dudley
The Australian – Page: 3 : 28-May-24

Presenter Lisa Wilkinson is seeking over $1.8 million from the Ten Network to pay her legal costs in the aftermath of their defamation case against Bruce Lehrmann, with the Federal Court being told by her lawyers on Monday that Ten was showing an "ongoing reluctance" to pay her costs. The dispute between Wilkinson and Ten over her legal costs arose as a result of her deciding to seek separate representation for the defamation case, with Ten arguing that she should pay for all aspects of the case where it was not necessary for her to have separate representation.

CORPORATES
TEN NETWORK HOLDINGS LIMITED, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Mehreen Faruqi v Pauline Hanson: Greens senator tells court attacks on white people not racist

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Original article by Karen Middleton
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 30-Apr-24

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi is suing One Nation senator Pauline Hanson over a social media post in which Hanson told Faruqi to "pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan", with Faruqi describing the post as "the ultimate racist slur". Appearing as the first witness in the case on Monday, Faruqi was accused by Hanson’s lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou SC, of being a hypocrite, with Chrysanthou claiming Faruqi had made and endorsed racist remarks about white people. Faruqi denied that verbal attacks on white people are racist, claiming that racism is also about power and the use of that power to perpetrate racism and oppress people; she claimed that power in Australia is held by white people.

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AUSTRALIAN GREENS, ONE NATION PARTY

Musk joins Dick Smith in stoush over ABC fact-check

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Original article by Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 26-Mar-24

Dick Smith has threatened to sue the ABC for defamation if a report issued by the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit is not corrected. The report was issued in response to an interview between Smith and 2GB host Ben Fordham, in which he stated that "no country has ever been able to run entirely on renewables – that’s impossible". Smith claims that the report basically made him out to be a liar, and that "fact checkers are traitors to Australia". Billionaire Elon Musk has weighed in on the issue, claiming in a tweet on his X social media platform that "having government ‘fact-checkers’ is a giant leap in the direction of tyranny"

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RMIT UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Absolutely no political cover-up of Higgins’ alleged rape’

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Original article by Joanna Panagopoulos
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 20-Dec-23

Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against the Ten Network and presenter Lisa Wilkinson continued in the Federal Court on Tuesday. Fiona Brown, the former chief of staff for senator Linda Reynolds, refuted suggestions that the alleged rape of Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins had been covered up. Brown also said Higgins had disclosed that she could remember Lehrmann being "on top of me" but had not made an allegation of rape. Wilkinson has previously told the court that she believed that Brown and Reynolds were "knowing participants in a systemic cover-up" of Higgins’ alleged rape. Lehrmann has consistently denied that he raped Higgins. The court will hear closing submissions in the case on Thursday.

CORPORATES
FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Emails to stay secret after Stokes covers Nine’s costs

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 12-Dec-23

Seven and Kerry Stokes’ private company Australian Capital Equity funded Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action against Nine Entertainment via loan agreements with Roberts-Smith, with Roberts-Smith currently appealing the decision. Nine has been pursuing Seven and ACE for costs in relation to the failed action, and Stokes has now agreed to cover Nine’s costs. As a result, he has avoided the release of thousands of emails between him, his "corporate fixer" Bruce McWilliam, and Roberts-Smith’s legal team

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SEVEN WEST MEDIA LIMITED – ASX SWM, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL EQUITY PTY LTD, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC

ABC defamation bill hits $1.9 million over four years

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Original article by Calum Jaspan
The Age – Page: Online : 9-Aug-23

The ABC has disclosed its legal costs arising from defamation actions in recent years. Documents filed with the federal government show that the ABC spent $1.94m on legal costs over the four years to 2022-23. This includes legal settlements totalling $753,450 in 2020-21 and 2021-22, and external costs of $1.2m for the two financial years. However, the figures exclude data for the 2019-20 and 2022-23 financial years, as the public broadcaster was only required to disclose its legal costs for years in which there were three or more settlements.

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION

Defamation reforms: Australian media may not be liable for Facebook comments in future

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Original article by Amanda Meade
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 14-Dec-22

A proposed overhaul of Australia’s uniform defamation laws will include the addition of an "innocent dissemination defence". This would protect individuals and organisations that administer Facebook pages from being sued for defamation over comments that were posted by third parties. The proposed reforms follow a 2021 court ruling which found that media companies could be liable for defamatory comments posted on their Facebook pages by people who read or view their content. The Standing Council of Attorneys-General has given in-principle support to the reforms.

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FACEBOOK, AUSTRALIA. STANDING COUNCIL OF ATTORNEYS-GENERAL

Crikey: small independent news website challenges Lachlan Murdoch to sue it for defamation

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Original article by Ben Doherty
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 24-Aug-22

Private Media has taken out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times in which it challenges Lachlan Murdoch to sue for defamation. Private Media is the publisher of the Crikey news website, which has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Murdoch over an article written by political editor Bernard Keane that linked the Murdoch family to the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol building. The article referred to the name "Murdoch" several times in both the title and text, but Crikey has contended that Lachlan Murdoch is not specifically named at any time, and that any defamation action "is bound to fail". Murdoch’s lawyers in turn have argued that the article and associated social media posts contain "scandalous allegations of criminal conduct and conspiracy" and "highly defamatory and false imputations" about him.

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PRIVATE MEDIA PARTNERS PTY LTD, CRIKEY.COM.AU

ABC board left out on legal costs

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Original article by James Madden, Sophie Elsworth
The Australian – Page: 3 : 27-Oct-21

The ABC’s MD David Anderson has told a Senate estimates hearing that he made the decision to pay the legal costs of journalist Louise Milligan in a defamation case, and he did not consult the public broadcaster’s board. Anderson defended his actions by saying he had legal advice to the effect that the ABC could potentially have been held vicariously liable for Milligan’s social media posts regarding Liberal MP Andrew Laming; this could have resulted in legal costs for the ABC of up to $700,000. It is estimated that the ABC has incurred legal costs of about $184,000 arising from the case.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

ABC in cover-up claim over Louise Milligan’s tweets about MP Andrew Laming

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Original article by Janet Fife-Yeomans
The Daily Telegraph – Page: Online : 26-Oct-21

The ABC is under renewed scrutiny over Andrew Laming’s defamation payout after the public broadcaster declined to release 161 documents concerning the case. The documents in question involve internal discussions regarding the tweets of journalist Louise Milligan about the federal Liberal MP. The documents were requested via freedom of information laws, but the ABC released copies of the documents in which most of the text had been blacked out. One Nation MP Mark Latham has urged Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to release all documents relating to the Laming case.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS