NSW Supreme Court Chief Judge at Common Law Peter McClellan orders Nationwide News to pay actress Judy Davis’ costs on an indemnity basis because the publisher failed to make a reasonable settlement offer before trial ... more
Year: 2008
McCarthyism’s effects
Where to now for Fairfax’s pre-publication work … 2UE challenges “business defamation” in the High Court … “Dirty, stinking, dobbing” Olympic cyclist’s trial set to start … Lange the focus of appeal in Lewincamp … More defamation action in Tasmania … Trish Draper’s ex loses fourth interlocutory appeal … two new suits filed against old favourite A Current Affair ... more
Privacy – where reasonable minds differ
Was the ABC right not to appeal Judge Felicity Hampel’s decision in Doe v ABC? And was Jane Doe’s identity in the public domain simply because she disclosed it to some people? Dr David Rolph takes issue with Stephen Collins, in the light of statutory provisions and the common law ... more
Polly Peck goes West
Polly Peck alive and well and thriving in the West … Trouble in Tassie as leading silk sues The Mercury ... The Bulletin to appeal Justice Besanko’s lacerating judgment in Lewincamp ... War-zone entertainer Tania Zaetta sues The Telegraph over “slut” allegations ... Alan Jones settles with Nurses’ Association head Brett Holmes … Queensland defamation action struck out after 18 years … Jeremy Griffith’s organisation presses on against Fairfax ... more
R v The Age Company Ltd, Andrew Jaspan & Fairfax Digital Ltd
Victorian Supreme Court Justice Emilios Kyrou follows his decision in R v The Herald & Weekly Times Pty Ltd and fines The Age $10,000 for a “similar” contempt brought about by “a serious, albeit inadvertent error” ... more
Of Mice and Mosley
The former head of ABC Legal, Stephen Collins, takes an uncompromising look at the state of privacy here, and in the UK. He argues the ABC got it wrong by not appealing Justice Felicity Hampel’s decision in Jane Doe v ABC and that Britain’s Justice Eady got it right in Mosley v News Group Newspapers. So where’s the rub? ... more
Mosley v News Group Newspapers Ltd
Britain’s High Court of Justice awards Max Mosley damages of £60,000 for News of the World invasion of privacy that alleged the son of wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley engaged in a “sick Nazi orgy”. Mr Justice Eady finds no public interest or justification in the paper’s clandestine filming and subsequent publication of Mosley’s S & M sessions ... more
Whistleblower protection and the media
How far should whistleblower protection extend and whom should it embrace? The Australian Press Council’s Policy Officer Inez Ryan looks at the legislative landscape and argues that whistleblower protection which doesn’t include the media is no protection at all ... more
Romzi Ali v Nationwide News Pty Ltd
The NSW Court of Appeal increases by $150,000 the damages paid to a man accused of being a fundraiser for Laskar Jihad and a supporter of terrorism. The defamation of the former secretary of the Dee Why mosque by The Australian must have been “close to catastrophic”, the court finds … more
Shari-Lea settles down
Dick Pratt’s former mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock takes the money … Seven settles two nursing home actions against Today Tonight ... The Rudd government announces a new whistleblower inquiry … Where to now for Frank Lewincamp’s other defamation actions … Special leave denied in two NSW media cases ... more
Griffith & Macartney-Snape v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Everest mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape awarded $448,500 damages over a 4 Corners program that alleged he deceived schools in order to recruit students for self-styled prophet Jeremy Griffith. Griffith’s action against the same program fails … more
Suppression orders under review
As the rise and rise of the suppression order threatens to erode open justice, Australia’s Right To Know, a coalition of 12 media organisations, has commissioned a national review. Prue Innes, the review’s research director, reports ... more