More on the omnishambles ... Holes in Justice Lee's Lehrmann findings on truth ... Natural and ordinary meaning of the word "rape" ... Disappearance of the ordinary reasonable reader/viewer ... Graham Hryce comments on arguable appeal points ... more
Category: Seminars, interviews & commentary
The silencing effect of Australia’s defamation laws
Justice Michael Lee's trauma-informed approach in Lehrmann ... Defamation trials impeding the exposure of sexual violence ... #MeToo ... Limited source material for Ten and Wilkinson's truth defence ... Luck ... Dr Sarah Ailwood comments ... more
Justice Lee damns them all
The Lehrmann case's collateral damage ...Cultural and political conflicts ... Adverse credit findings ... Breach of undertakings ... Unreasonable journalistic conduct ... Further investigations ... Prospect of appeal ... Graham Hryce comments ... more
An investigative journalist and her first thriller
Prominent journalist Louise Milligan talks to the Gazette ... On fiction, fact, and everything in between ... Standing up for the ABC ... Success of Four Corners ... Defamation law ... Qualities required for a good reporter ... more
Privacy panel
Expectations of privacy ... The outer reaches of public interest ... Use of equitable remedies and torts ... The overlap between defamation and privacy ... Veronica Lenard reports on a discussion hosted by Level 22 Chambers ... more
Digital defamation reform
Stage 2 ... Setback for uniformity in most recent announcement from attorneys general ... Fragmentation ... Prospective federal intervention ... Stage 1 laggards on board ... Revised model amendments ... Analysis from Kevin Lynch and Jade Tyrrell ... more
Social Media and the Law of Defamation
Not perfect, but the next round of reforms is welcomed by Justice Peter Applegarth from the Supreme Court of Queensland ... Liability of internet intermediaries for defamation ... Moderation ... Innocent dissemination comes into its own ... Trumpist laws in the USA provide no incentive to moderate harmful online content ... Richard Ackland reports ... more
New whistleblower legal service launched
Launch of The Whistleblower Project ... First dedicated, specialist pro bono legal service for whistleblowers ... Under the auspices of Human Rights Legal Centre ... Research shows eight in ten whistleblowers suffer detriment ... Only one case of compensation for detriment ...Speakers at launch event ... Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
Media-law jamboree at Cambridge
Through UK, US and Australian lenses ... Defamation, privacy, political communication, press freedom, social media, data protection, contempt ... Top drawer speakers from the media-law world ... Practitioners and academics ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reports ... more
Freedom from information
FOI - stuck in the 1980s ... A senate inquiry gets to work on the outdated FOI Act ... Worthwhile submissions examined ... Unacceptable delays ... Departmental obstruction ... Access to cabinet documents ... Insights from the Robodebt Royal Commission ... Word ahead ... Report from Peter Timmins ... more
Revamping whistleblower protections
New whistleblower amendments an important first step ... Protections for public interest whistleblowing need to be extended to all sectors ... Handling personal workplace grievances ... Integrity and anti-corruption reform on the march ... Stronger press freedoms wait in the wings ... Professor A J Brown comments ... more
The defamation trial of the century
From behind the lines in the Roberts-Smith case ... MinterEllison's Peter Bartlett surveys the litigation from the perspective of his media clients ... To sue was a terrible error ... Getting witnesses into the box ... Seven v Nine ... Complexity created by national security ... The role of Covid ... PR onslaught ... Appeal prospects ... more