War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has said that while he was proud to have received the Victoria Cross for his actions at the 2010 battle of Tizak in Afghanistan, winning the award “put a target” on his back, with fellow soldiers seeking to undermine those they saw as tall poppies.
SAS soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has lost a bid to shield his medical records from three publishers less than a week before his high-profile defamation case kicks off in the Federal Court.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith “wiped” a laptop last month containing possible national secrets found on USB sticks retrieved from his former home, the judge overseeing the former soldier’s defamation case against three publishers has heard.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith is seeking all “covert recordings” held by Nine and revealed in a number of news publications last month in which the former soldier said it was his “sole mission” to destroy the journalists behind allegedly defamatory articles accusing him of war crimes.
Nine has agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit by former Liberal leader John Hewson alleging a report by A Current Affair about his insurance firm was gratuitous and “seriously dishonest”.
A judge has allowed four Afghan witnesses who allegedly saw Ben Roberts-Smith kick a handcuffed Afghan citizen off a cliff to give evidence remotely when the Australian war veteran’s defamation case against three newspapers heads to trial in June.
Nine-owned Fairfax will have to pay out over $2 million in legal fees after being hit with indemnity costs on top of a $280,000 judgment in its defamation spat with venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead for its “Micawber-like” approach to the case.
Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead is seeking indemnity costs after being awarded $280,000 in her defamation case against Nine-owned Fairfax, which she accuses of rejecting several settlement offers with “bugger off letters” and engaging in a “petulant campaign” of media coverage post-judgment.
Chinese businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing has been awarded $590,000 in a Federal Court judgment that found an ABC Four Corner’s report contained “untrue and seriously defamatory imputations” about alleged espionage, bribery of UN leaders, and links to the Chinese Communist Party.
Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has been awarded $280,000 in her defamation case against the Nine-owned Australian Financial Review after the Federal Court found she suffered hurt and damage to her reputation through a “targeted campaign of offensive mockery” about her role in collapsed investment firm Blue Sky Alternative Investments.