NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Hamill dismisses a bid by a member of the “Brothers 4 Life” criminal gang to prohibit all coverage of an imminent mega-trial … Neither do media companies have to take down archived material, for now ... more
Year: 2015
Edward Kang v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A migration agent whose case against the ABC was dismissed for want of compliance, loses his appeal …. NSW Court of Appeal judge John Basten gives Edward Kang’s submissions short shrift ... more
Fredrick Toben v Nationwide News & Ors
NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum permanently stays defamation proceedings brought by alleged Holocaust denier over an article in The Australian ... His action is “a cynical misuse of the process of the court” pursued in order to ventilate his anti-Semitic views ... more
Moutia Elzahed & Ors v Commonwealth of Australia & Anor
NSW District Court Defamation List Judge Judith Gibson strikes out defamation claim brought against police officers by a family who is also suing for assault, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment … Calling someone a “bitch” is not defamatory ... more
Hamza Cheikho v Nationwide News
Jury finds most imputations pleaded against The Daily Telegraph by a young Muslim man involved in the 2012 Hyde Park protest didn’t arise … Honest opinion and truth are upheld, with Justice Lucy McCallum still to decide qualified privilege for one imputation ... more
IP news, here and there
New Jersey Circuit Court finds no likeness between a “floating head from outer space” and video game player Billy Mitchell … YouTube initiative to protect videos created under Fair Use exceptions … IP Australia lists what is patentable in genetics ... more
Newspaper archive to be hidden from internet searches, but no “re-writing of history”
Right to be forgotten case illustrates the “proper and proportionate” balance of privacy and freedom of expression in respect of newspaper archives, says Inforrm’s Hugh Tomlinson QC ... more
Paddling in the backwater: Australian courts and online defamation
Two recent Australian judgments involving online defamation illustrate just how far the common law here is lagging behind the rest of the world, according to author, academic and barrister Dr Matt Collins QC ... What we need is urgent legislative reform ... more
Brett Smith v Ken Lucht
All in the family … An Ipswich solicitor who was likened to the hapless lawyer featured in the Australian film The Castle has his defamation action dismissed … The plaintiff was unlikely to suffer harm by being called “Dennis Denuto” to two members of his family ... more
Dugald Walker & Anor v Richard Brimblecombe
QLD Court of Appeal rules that a malicious email sent to shareholders was not protected by either form of qualified privilege when it was re-published to “unknown persons at ASIC” ... more
Milorad Trkulja v Google Inc
A Melbourne man who reaped substantial damages from Google and Yahoo over defamatory search engine results enjoys another victory … Victorian Supreme Court finds Google is a publisher, even prior to receiving notice ... more
Lili Chel v Fairfax Media & Vanda Carson
King Cross nightclub owner describes her “upmarket, trendy” venue before her defamation case against Fairfax is stayed … NSW Court of Appeal rules on the right of a party to abandon its election for a jury trial, and to revisit a decision not to ... more