Victorian Supreme Court Justice Betty King stops Nine’s real-life gangland series Underbelly from going to air in Victoria tonight and takes a swipe at Channel Nine’s profit motive. GLJ has the full transcript of yesterday’s hearing and the judge’s ruling ... more
Year: 2008
Christina Rich v Anthony Harrington & Ors
Media companies banned from seeing “irrelevant” documents in Christina Rich’s (pic) sexual harassment suit against PricewaterhouseCoopers. Federal Court judge Catherine Branson accuses journalists of sensationalism ... more
Martin v Bruce
Bowling club stoush results in what appears to be the first NSW damages award under the uniform defamation laws. District Court judge Judith Gibson awards $25,000 plus costs over an anonymous broadsheet published to four people in Tathra … more
Brett May v Channel Nine, Nine Network Australia, Australian News Network and Royce George
The Nine Network settles for $300,000 a defamation action brought by a NSW highway patrolman. Another feather in the cap of ACA reporter Ben Fordham … more
Rachel Gardener v Nationwide News Pty Ltd
Rachel Gardener, the former Homebush High English teacher defamed as a bank robber by The Daily Telegraph in 2006, has done much better in her s.7A re-trial. Once again the jury rejects an imputation sent back by the NSW Court of Appeal ... more
Bell tolls for cult leader in defamation verdict
One of the first damages awards under new uniform laws … Justice Howie lets his unabashed views be known about The Sydney Morning Herald and one of its top journalists … Settlements for brothel owner Eddie Hayson (pic) and an alleged “child molester” ... Defendants have their assets frozen in the nick of time … Sexual shenanigans defamation suit against Wollongong City Council ... more
Universal Communication Network Inc t/as New Tang Dynasty v Chinese Media Group (Aust) Pty Ltd
NSW Court of Appeal finds a directed jury verdict on identification was “unreasonable”. New Tang Dynasty lives to fight another day. ... more
Keramianakis v Regional Publishers Pty Ltd
NSW Court of Appeal cuts it both ways; unanimously finding another section 7A jury verdict unreasonable, and, by majority, finding it has no jurisdiction to hear appeals from jury verdicts in the NSW District Court. Justice Rothman dissents “with unfeigned respect” ... more
John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd v Shari-Lea Hitchcock
The NSW Court of Appeal overturns Justice Henric Nicholas’ decision to strike out all of Fairfax’s defences over a Sun-Herald gossip column about Dick Pratt’s former mistress Shari-Lea Hitchcock. The court agrees her behaviour is, arguably, a matter of public interest ... more
R v Herald & Weekly Times Ltd
The Crown has failed to have contempt charges brought against the Herald & Weekly Times and Herald Sun editor Peter Blunden over two court reports which were not fair, but which could not be proved to prejudice a fair trial ... more
R v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABC fined $30,000 after pleading guilty to four charges of contempt relating to reports of court proceedings in regional Victoria. Justice Harper finds the court was also at fault in failing to follow it’s own protocol ... more
State of Victoria v Nine Network
The Nine Network wins public interest argument over the accidental disclosure of some confidential documents by Corrections Victoria. Victorian Supreme Court Justice Osborn stops short of allowing the broadcaster to publish the remaining documents ... more