The long-awaited decision from SA’s Full Supreme Court does little to clarify the perplexing issue of how a search engine is liable for defamation, writes Sydney University media law academic Professor David Rolph ... The judgment raises more questions than it answers in relation to publication, intention and knowledge ... more
Year: 2017
Denis Wagner & Ors v Harbour Radio & Ors
Queensland’s prominent Wagner family succeed in bid to have defamation proceedings involving 32 publications brought against Alan Jones, 2GB and others tried without a jury … The problem is “more than one about size” says Supreme Court Justice Peter Applegarth ... more
Judge rejects sex offender’s bid to censor Google searches
Interesting High Court (Belfast) decision sees sex offender who changed his name by deed poll fail in a bid to force Google to expunge the results of searches about his history of offending, including when he was a child … This report from Media Lawyer’s Mike Dodd ... more
Gary Miller v An Overseas Newspaper & Ors
NSW Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum grants urgent injunction over “highly defamatory” overseas newspaper story and makes pseudonym orders in respect of the parties … Google Inc advises it will not remove its search engine results, but is ordered to do so ... more
Damian Sheales v The Age Company Pty Ltd & Ors
Melbourne criminal barrister who won defamation action against The Age refused costs on an indemnity basis … He failed to disclose two documents critical to a resolution of the dispute … Victorian Supreme Court Justice John Dixon finds they were withheld for “forensic advantage” ... more
2017 Media Law Resource Centre conference
Trump, Brexit, fake news, Max Mosley (in person), privacy, the “right to be forgotten”, libel reform, dazzling speakers and a whole lot of well-lubricated networking featured at this year’s Media Law Resource Centre conference in London … This report from News Corp Australia in-house counsel Larina Mullins ... more
Ronney Oueik v Luke Foley
Separate proceedings for slander brought against the NSW opposition leader by the former mayor of Auburn are dismissed … What Luke Foley said to a Channel Seven reporter lacks context, the imputations pleaded do not arise and the action is trivial ... more
Bhupinder Takhar v Harminder Kaur Sroa.
Prominent member of Adelaide’s Sikh community awarded $10,000 over a defamatory article posted on a temple notice board … Publication was for a short time and likely to be read by a “very, very limited” number of people … more
Plymouth Brethren (Exclusive Brethren) Christian Church v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd, The Age Company Pty Ltd & Michael Bachelard
NSW Supreme Court Defamation List Judge Lucy McCallum dismisses two sets of proceedings brought against Fairfax and one of its investigative journalists … Self-described “church” the Plymouth Brethren is not identifiable in the article ... more
The Fourth Estate and the Fake Estate: Brexit, Trump and the rise of populism
In this paper, presented at the September 2017 Media Law Resource Centre conference in London, NSW District Court Defamation List Judge Judith Gibson asks what recent political developments mean for the press and democracy in Europe and America, and how the press and judiciary should respond to the problem of “fake news” ... more
The exorbitant injunction in X v Twitter
The NSW Supreme Court has issued a global injunction enjoining overseas defendants to remove tweets of a corporate leaker … Sydney University media law academic Michael Douglas reviews the case, and the injunction ... more
Defamation law reform – Australia
The third edition of Defamation Law in Australia has just been published, with a new chapter on why the time is right for reform … This summary, by the book’s author Patrick George, details what could be modified or improved in light of the digital world and the law in practice ... more