Digital giants Google and Facebook will be required to pay for news content under a new mandatory code being developed by the Government to create a ‘level playing field’ in the Australian media industry, which is facing a sharp decline in advertising revenue driven by the coronavirus.
A judge has refused to summarily dismiss a defamation case brought by a government worker against Twitter, Google and Yahoo over racist, homophobic, anti-Muslim and conspiratorial tweets resulting from an alleged identity theft.
The High Court has quashed a search warrant obtained by the Australian Federal Police and used to raid a News Corp journalist’s home, but did not go so far as to order the return or destruction of documents obtained in the raid.
Seven West Media has filed a lawsuit against Bauer Media to compel the German company to complete its planned $40 million acquisition of the Australian media giant’s Pacific Magazines unit.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has lost its bid for indemnity costs against the Australian Federal Police in a case brought to block access to documents seized during a search of its headquarters last year.
Fairfax Media has failed in its appeal of a judgment that found the publisher defamed Chinese-Australian businessman Dr Chau Chak Wing in a Sydney Morning Herald article that linked him to an international bribery scandal.
The former boss of Sydney’s 2GB and Melbourne’s 3AW radio stations, Adam Lang, has resolved his defamation case against the publisher of the Daily Telegraph over articles he claimed portrayed him as an incompetent, sadistic executive who created a toxic work atmosphere.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead is pushing forward with her defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax Media despite what she has called an “inadequate” third attempt at a defence by the publisher.
A theatre producer facing a lawsuit by his former collaborators for stealing the script for his off-Broadway puppet show parody of the 80s TV sitcom Golden Girls has lost his own legal action against them, which alleged they defamed him and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by talking to a New York Times reporter about their lawsuit.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has secured a short-lived agreement by the Australian Federal Police not to look at the material seized in a controversial raid on the national broadcaster’s headquarters as it considers whether to take its battle with the agency to an appeals court.