Gazette

Graham Hryce regrets the further whittling of the defence of fair comment by the High Court. The “right of cranks” to speak about unpopular causes has been significantly undermined as the defence can now only succeed where the comment is “reasonable” ... more

Richard Potter comments on the High Court’s latest foray into comment. It would be an irony if the “honest opinion” provisions of the uniform Defamation Act achieve in practice what the minority judges (Kirby in Manock and McHugh in Pervan) argued as being the real effect of the common law ... more

The NSW Court of Appeal interrogates notions of celebrity, privacy and the public interest as Fairfax appeals Justice Henric Nicholas’ decision to strike out all its defences over a Sun-Herald gossip column about Dick Pratt’s former mistress, Shari-Lea Hitchcock ... more

The High Court hears another “ferocious interlocutory battle”, this time over fair comment. Was the South Australian Court of Appeal misguided in connecting the substratum of fact to the imputation pleaded? ... more

Graham Hryce argues that the High Court decision in Gacic is a disaster for media defendants. Not only has the power of juries been seriously diminished, the creation of a new category of “business defamation” opens opportunities for business owners to sue on a basis not previously allowed by the common law ... more