The chief of the Australian Defence Force has been given the opportunity to put on further evidence after a judge said he would otherwise order that material provided to a war crimes inquiry by Ben Roberts-Smith be produced in the war veteran’s defamation case against three news publishers.
In what is believed to be a first in Australia, a judge hearing a defamation case between two Sydney lawyers has found that an emoji is capable of carrying a defamatory imputation.
Nationwide News may not accept liability for a series of allegedly defamatory tweets published from reporter Miranda Devine’s personal account about 9-year-old Quaden Bayles, telling a judge the tweets were “private”.
A convicted drug smuggler is suing Channel Nine over a segment on A Current Affair that accused him of being a police informer and which a judge branded as “dangerous and irresponsible reporting” after he was attacked in prison.
In airing a ‘7:30′ segment that revealed racehorses were being slaughtered in violation of industry rules, the ABC acted with malice in what was a “set up” designed to make the head of Racing NSW “look bad”, a court has heard.
An Australian mother who posted a viral video of her son, who suffers from achondroplasia dwarfism, following a bullying incident has hit the Daily Telegraph’s publisher with a defamation lawsuit over a reporter’s retweet of conspiracy theories that the video was a fake.
Media companies that are fighting defamation proceedings over articles that accused decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith of war crimes have won court permission to amend their defence to include evidence the soldier was involved in another alleged murder.
Underworld figure Mick Gatto has been denied a trial by jury in his defamation proceedings against the ABC, with the judge-only hearing scheduled to start next week.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead has refused to go into a second round of mediation in her defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax Media Publications saying it would be a “waste of time”.
A judge has slammed a lawyer for her “abysmal arrogance and sense of privilege”, ordering her to pay $300,000 to her Balmain neighbour after a long-running property dispute culminated in a defamatory interview that was broadcast to over one million TV viewers on A Current Affair.