Plenty of action (and inaction) on the mediation front … Fresh settlements for Fairfax Media … New actions for Nationwide News and 2GB … On the steps of the High Court with a “Holocaust philosopher” and three journalists ordered to reveal their sources … Vale three others ... more
Year: 2016
Case management prevails over “newspaper rule”
The “newspaper rule” all but dead after the High Court refuses special leave in the Liu sources disclosure dispute … Victory of case management over principle is a troubling result for investigative journalism, says media lawyer Graham Hryce ... more
Is correction republication?
Media companies join appeal over the Rolling Stone “rape on campus” verdict … The jury’s finding that the magazine’s correction amounted to republication has serious implications for journalism, say New York-based media lawyers Ed Klaris and Alexia Bedat ... more
Ali Mosslmani by his tutor Karout v DailyMail.com Australia Pty Ltd, Nationwide News Pty Ltd, Australian Radio Network Pty Ltd (No. 2)
Two interesting imputations judgments from the NSW District Court … The teenager with the viral “mullet” has his action against The Daily Telegraph dismissed … Not so a man The Sydney Morning Herald accused of sexual assault in a court report … Justin Pen reports ... more
The use of social media for investigators
In this paper, presented to the 2016 Corruption Prevention Network Annual Forum, NSW District Court Defamation List Judge Judith Gibson examines the relationship between social media and corruption … Whistle blowers and investigative journalists are “greatly aided where publication on social media can be instantaneous, international and anonymous” ... more
Peter Gregg v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd
Defamation action brought by businessman Peter Gregg in the ACT to be heard by a judge alone … Fairfax Media’s “change of heart” without explanation came too late, says Justice Steven Rares ... more
The media law year in review
Big wins and big losses for the media … Social media actions flourish, as do suppression orders in several jurisdictions … Privacy law fails to get out of the stalls … Journalist sources remain in peril … A nuanced, but ultimately stagnant 2016 ... more
“JZ” and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Australian Information Commissioner finds insufficient public interest in an FOI request for cabinet documents containing details of a former federal MP’s inappropriate behaviour towards a female public servant in a Hong Kong bar … Justin Pen reports ... more
Defamation watch list
NSW Defamation List Judge Lucy McCallum dispenses with several interlocutory decisions – referring one matter to mediation and directing most pleaded imputations in two other matters to the jury ... more
Graeme Cowper v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd & Ors; Graeme Cowper v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Two weeks into his massive defamation case against Fairfax and the ABC, former NAB financial adviser Graeme Cowper withdraws … Expensive exercise results in verdict for the defendants and a $200,000 costs bill ... more
Graeme Cowper v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd & Ors; Graeme Cowper v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The plaintiff finally gives evidence, but a key defendant won’t be … Plenty of “happy client” witnesses potentially looming, according to the plaintiff’s counsel, Kieran Smark SC … Naaman Zhou reports ... more
Lynda Meegan v Times Newspapers Ltd
Recent Court of Appeal judgment from Ireland prevents defamation plaintiff from obtaining a journalist’s notes … Section 26 defence of reasonable publication was not put precisely enough … This case note by Mike Dodd of Media Lawyer ... more