Keysar Trad’s appeal challenged … Palace Cinemas sue The Australian Financial Review and Screen Hub ... Greens MP Ian Cohen’s $1million loss … Imputations weeded out in Victoria and NSW … What sources? Bec Hewitt gets her costs … Expensive Queensland suits ... more
Category: Dossier
Damage control
Nationwide News settles with Tania Zaetta at the eleventh hour … Ian Thorpe drops action against French newspaper … Professor Bruce Hall appeals “perverse” jury verdict … Taxi tsar sues The Sydney Morning Herald over investigative series … Drummoyne newsletter defamations finally get a hearing … Jeremy Griffith’s appeal adjourned … High Court grants Paul Hogan special leave ... more
Settlement fever
Settlements everywhere … The NRL’s favourite groupie Charmyne “Cougar” Palavi sues 2UE for calling her a slut … Bollywood star Tania Zaetta’s forthcoming trial takes an unusual turn … Australian soldier labelled “too fat to fight” sues the Courier-Mail ... Channel Seven Sydney appeals $240,000 damages payout to mortgage broker it called “dishonest” ... more
Defamation diaspora
Justice Peter McClellan wants to send defamation cases down to the Dizzo … NSW premier manqué John Della Bosca’s case against The Telegraph ... Ex-lover of former Liberal MP Trish Draper not lying down … The ABC under fire from Labor lobbyist Nick Bolkus and retired Victorian copper Lance Marke … Former federal Labor hopeful Nicole Cornes sues comedian Mick Molloy … Porn king action against The Sydney Morning Herald ... Pets At Peace sue Today Tonight ... Who’s appealing ... more
Unsettling settlements
Grovels all round as Fairfax Media settles with the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood and Nationwide News settles with the redhead from Ipswich over those photos … Scientologists fail to stop Today Tonight story … Sydney Morning Herald holds off on erectile dysfunction injunction … “Cabbie” magazine’s special leave goes nowhere … George Paradisis’ no-show ends in a strike-out … Perth high-flyer Norm Carey sues over Four Corners program ... more
For love and money
Former NSW upper house MP Peter Breen settles with former coppers … Aboriginal mental health worker sues The Daily Examiner ... NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen seeks special leave to appeal property developer’s victory … Defamation fever in Adelaide judicial and parliamentary circles … Fairmont Resort fails to injunct A Current Affair ... Victorian bushfires Royal Commissioners attempt unprecedented media management ... more
All cut up
Medical entrepreneur sues The Financial Review ... Former Wollongong City Council employee settles sexual harassment defamation suit … Former Commonwealth Bank employee sues Fairfax and the bank for alleging she lied about being sexually harassed … Former manager of Glenn Innes nursing home pleads 18 imputations over leaflet … Press Freedom Media Dinner details … More defamation fallout from the ICAC inquiry into Wollongong City Council … Tragic end to 2CCC defamation action ... more
Humanity’s price
The Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood ordered to pay $500,000 in security for costs … Dr William McBride settles his defamation action after nearly 20 years … The West Australian fails to have Catholic Archbishop of Perth’s action struck out … Former parishioner sues Anglican Church over email alleging sexual harassment … Hair and car care tycoon loses bid to force Melbourne’s Herald Sun to disclose confidential sources ... more
Appeals, settlements and other distractions
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib continues to appeal … More perversity for the NSW Court of Appeal … Settlement for old adversaries Alan Jones and Olympic boss John Coates … Freedom of Speech conference details … An assault of new defamation actions against Fairfax, Nationwide News and Channel Seven ... more
High stakes
The High Court has heard three defamation matters in the past month, with varying degrees of interest. A damages appeal was hosed out … The new Chief Justice Robert French floated a simple test for “defamatory” in the context of submissions about “business defamation” ... Justice William Gummow wanted to know the meaning of the word “journalist” ... more
McBride Revisited
Thalidomide scientist Dr William McBride’s defamation action to be heard after 19 years … Putting on the writs in Moree and Canberra … Settlements for alleged bank robber and leading Tasmanian silk … Three Triple M appeals $350,000 damages payout to Olympic cyclist Mark French … Security for costs the order of the day … Nationwide News seeks special leave over doubling of “supporter of terrorism” damages … Justice Virginia Bell has the last word on the joys of section 7A ... more
Hold the source
The West Australian appeals order to hand over audiotapes revealing the source of an Alan Bond story … Federal government proposes three key amendments to strengthen journalists’ shield protection laws … Former ad man Geoffrey Cousins settles with Fairfax over “devious hypocrite” allegations … Former Howard government adviser loses defamation action against “paranoid” and “delusional” defendant … Convicted killer Bruce Burrell fails to suppress evidence already in the public domain ... more