Actor Geoffrey Rush has been awarded at least $850,000 in damages after taking Nationwide News to court alleging it defamed him by tainting him as a sexual predator, with the judge calling the publisher’s conduct “improper and unjustified”.
Social media companies will face criminal penalties for failing to promptly remove live-streaming of violent content under a harsh new law that whisked through the Federal Parliament in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, but the world-first law has been slammed by Australia’s peak legal body.
Judgment is expected next week in the closely watched defamation suit brought by actor Geoffrey Rush against Nationwide News, with the ruling expected to generate considerable attention amid a spate of recent high-dollar awards in defamation cases and as the country embarks on an ambitious overhaul of its defamation laws.
Executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter could be looking at new Australian laws carrying jail terms if they don’t do more to stop the live streaming of violence on their social media platforms.
Fairfax Media will seek to use documents provided by the US Department of Justice to amend its defence in a defamation case brought by wealthy Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing over articles that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald linking him to an international bribery scandal.
Australia’s television broadcasters face an investigation of their coverage of Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch, which included live footage filmed by the perpetrator of the mass shooting.
Fairfax Media is challenging a ruling ordering it to pay $280,000 in damages to Chau Chak Wing for an allegedly defamatory article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald linking the wealthy Chinese-Australian businessman to an international bribery scandal.
Leading defamation barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, has stepped down from representing cricketer Chris Gayle as an appeal by three media organisations against a $326,000 payout gets locked in for a June hearing.
The ABC has reached a settlement with ousted managing director Michelle Guthrie in her suit accusing the national broadcaster of unfairly sacking her.
Wealthy Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing has won $280,000 in damages in his defamation case against the Sydney Morning Herald over an article he said falsely linked him to an international bribery scandal.