Defamation

Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch has paid $1.3 million to Crikey publisher Private Media for costs incurred successfully defending his defamation suit.

A judge has rejected a request by lawyers for Seven and the TV network’s billionaire chairman, Kerry Stokes, to issue a correction to his published decision ordering the production of over 8,600 emails exchanged with Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawyers in a defamation case.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has succeeded in overturning a defamation judgment requiring her to pay $250,000 in damages to former colleague Brian Burston, with the Full Federal Court finding an allegation of sexual abuse against Burston was substantially true.

Seven Network and owner Kerry Stokes are seeking to challenge a ruling ordering them to produce thousands of emails exchanged with Ben Roberts-Smith’s legal team as Nine tallies its costs of successfully defending the former soldier’s defamation action.

A court has awarded a plastic surgeon $50,000 after finding he was defamed by a patient who left him a one-star review online.

An in-house lawyer is barred from representing his employer in proceedings against a law firm after a judge found it breached rules in Western Australia that require corporate litigants to be represented by solicitors. 

A PricewaterhouseCoopers partner may launch defamation proceedings against the professional services firm over two press releases which he says falsely linked him to a tax leaks scandal in an attempt to “offer scapegoats” to the public. 

Kerry Stokes and Seven Network have lost their bid for an extension to produce 8,600 emails exchanged between the media company and Ben Roberts-Smith’s lawyers in Fairfax’s bid for costs in defending the defamation case over alleged war crimes 

One Nation’s NSW leader Mark Latham has responded to a defamation case by Alex Greenwich by claiming his homophobic tweet was an honest opinion and improved, rather than damaged, the independent Sydney MP’s reputation.

Ben Roberts-Smith has argued a judge should recuse himself from deciding if the Office of the Special Investigator can access his defamation court file, arguing the public might think he was biased and wanted to “further” his findings that the former SAS corporal committed war crimes.  In a case management hearing on Monday, Arthur Moses…