Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland addresses forum of media industry professionals ... Evidence needed to guide any intervention in media diversity and enhanced local provision of news ... ACMA to consult on measures of media diversity ... Other reform priorities ... Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
Category: Seminars, interviews & commentary
Jock Given
Leading media and communications scholar takes on the big questions of the moment ... The latest round of defamation law amendments ... Tech platforms and their liability ...Innovations in media school ... Job hunting for graduates ... A royal commission ... A world without newspapers ... A proper mission for the streaming services ... Q & A with Professor Jock Given ... more
Regulating the social media ‘pile on’
Stage two of the Model Defamation Provisions ... A review of the proposals from Patrick George ... Online Safety Act ... Regulation of trolls ... Commonwealth should use its powers to protect reputations from online attack ... Internet intermediaries and breaches of consumer protection and privacy laws ... Policy direction of the Commonwealth ... Current State and Territory uniformity insufficient ... more
The Chelmsford defamation debacle
Chelmsford case gives the law a bad name ... Appeal upheld ... Errors at trial ... Unpalatable outcome ... Reasonableness proves elusive ... Back it goes ... Lessons to be learned ... Comment from Graham Hryce ... more
Trollitics
Who really benefits from the Troll Bill, and why? ... Transferring liability ... Avenues of defence open to media companies as subordinate publishers of third-party comments ... Innocent dissemination ... High Court's Voller decision does not require a radical change to the law of defamation ... Graffitied walls ... Analysis and commentary ... more
Hugh Tomlinson QC
Leading UK media and information barrister tells the Gazette about his best cases, phone hacking, the Leveson inquiry and the failure to achieve meaningful regulatory reform of the press ... Privacy versus defamation ... more
Defamation law judges’ panel
Panel of leading defamation jurists ... Scrutiny of costs, anti-trolling legislation, defamation law reforms ... Decline in juries ... Serious harm threshold ... Public interest defence ... Courts Editor Stephen Murray reports ... more
Nick McKenzie
Investigative journalist Nick McKenzie answers questions from the Gazette ... Informants and their reliability ... Working with defamation lawyers ... Defending journalism in court ... Disinclination to roll-over ... Complexity and the Federal Court ... Optimism about journalism and its future ... more
Hamish Thomson
Guardian Australia in-house lawyer Hamish Thomson talks to the Gazette ... Long career in London ... Where's an Australian equivalent to Article 10? ... Traps for journalists ... The call for clarity ... Online reader comments post-Voller ... more
Lisa Davies
Sydney Morning Herald editor Lisa Davies resigns ... Here she answers the Gazette's questions about changes at the paper during her time at the helm ... The future of print ... Big defamation cases ... The challenge of big tech ... And daily life in the editor's chair ... more
Judges v The Internet
The High Court's failure to grasp the changing pace of online communications ... Court rulings wedded to outdated interpretation of "publication" ... Voller ... Defteros and Gutnick ... Threat to the utility of the search engine ... Tech platforms remain in their own orbit ... Commentary from Richard Ackland ... more
Matthew Lewis
Sydney barrister Matthew Lewis takes our questions as he wings to England and Wales ... Authentic rarebit beckons ... Working from Doughty St ... The virtual world ... Reservations about the new public interest defence ... Time will tell ... more