Prominent silk Dyson Hore-Lacy wins latest bout in long-running interlocutory battle with author Phil Cleary and Allen & Unwin. Victorian Court of Appeal finds trial judge rightly refused the pair leave to re-plead “futile” comment defence ... more

Grovels all round as Fairfax Media settles with the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood and Nationwide News settles with the redhead from Ipswich over those photos … Scientologists fail to stop Today Tonight story … Sydney Morning Herald holds off on erectile dysfunction injunction … “Cabbie” magazine’s special leave goes nowhere … George Paradisis’ no-show ends in a strike-out … Perth high-flyer Norm Carey sues over Four Corners program ... more

Victorian Court of Appeal rules against consolidation of Ultra Tune tycoon’s proceedings over Herald Sun articles alleging illicit dealings and links to an alleged “drug czar”. Court finds consolidation could work a “substantial prejudice” to the plaintiff by imposing statutory cap on damages ... more

Sydney media lawyer Richard Keegan reports on the federal government’s recent lame attempt to strengthen journalists’ shield laws. As expected, nothing changes when it comes to the protection of confidential sources ... more

Reading University law academic Lawrence McNamara has spent the last two years researching the impact of anti-terrorism laws on the Australian media. While he finds “disquiet” and “nervousness” among journalists, it doesn’t quite amount to a “chilling” effect. More worrying is the very real issue of limited access to information ... more

An illiterate schizophrenic man called by Channel Seven tells the NSW Supreme Court he doesn’t know what a mortgage is. Nevertheless he signed “business investment” loan papers totalling over $300,000 put before him by Newcastle mortgage broker Peter Mahommed ... more

The scabby world of low-doc loans slowly unravels in court 10E as Channel Seven defends its Today Tonight story on “dishonest” mortgage broker Peter Mahommed. Another David “Barcelona” Richardson special ... more

Businessman Alan Bond fails to get access to six mysterious photographs taken by The West Australian in the course of his long-running legal battle with the paper over documents allegedly stolen from one of his two Cottesloe homes ... more

High Court unanimously overturns NSW Court of Appeal judgment that determined it had no jurisdiction to hear an appeal from a District Court jury verdict ... more

Media lawyer and consultant Bruce Donald reviews the current state of SLAPP litigation in Australia and finds that the problem remains serious – at least for those outside the mainstream media who criticise conduct in the public interest ... more

NSW Court of Appeal asked to overturn Nationwide News victory against former terrorist suspect Mamdouh Habib on the basis that Justice Peter McClellan wrongly admitted evidence obtained after he was tortured in Pakistan and Guantanamo Bay ... more

Counsel for Harbour Radio, Richard McHugh SC, gets down and dirty as he interrogates Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad on the finer points of homosexual sex. The Gazette brings you some (uncensored) excerpts ... more

Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad tells the NSW Supreme Court he didn’t condemn Sheik Taj el-Din al-Hilali’s “uncovered meat” comments about women because no one asked his opinion. Trad’s views on women, gays and Jews come under intense scrutiny ... more