Australian Defamation Law and Practice (T K Tobin QC and M G Sexton SC SG ed., LexisNexis) is about to publish its updated list of all judgments for damages in defamation made under the uniform legislation ... This article includes that list and an analysis of the trends in damages by NSW District Court Defamation List Judge Judith Gibson ... more
Year: 2017
Sawa Pty Ltd v Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Not for publication: ABC fails to get secretly recorded video footage of animal cruelty released after it was first granted by a magistrate ... Privacy trumps public interest according to WA Supreme Court Justice John Chaney ... Carmel Galati reports ... more
Rush to judgment
Defamation the new battleground for high profile protagonists ... Details of Geoffrey Rush's proceedings against The Daily Telegraph and of the extraordinary stoush between "commentators" Osman Faruqi and Mark Latham ... Both commenced in the jurisdiction du jour, the Federal Court ... more
Mouhammad Tabbaa and Pamela Tabbaa v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd
Cross-examination of Nine's chief witness proceeds slowly and ineffectively ... Uncut version of her interview with 60 Minutes reporter Liz Hayes appears to convey more evidence of the truth of her claims, not less, despite some hateful emotions ... more
Khalil Khalil v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd
Pleading "weasel words", the identification of an individual via company names and consideration of whether "liking" someone on Facebook amounts to liability for a defamatory publication feature in three interlocutory decisions from NSW ... Nick Bonyhady reports ... more
Media and Communications List: a new approach to media litigation in the UK
Earlier this year Mr Justice Warby was appointed to the newly created role of Judge in Charge of the Media and Communications List ... In this article, Paul Magrath from the Transparency Project looks at what this means in practice and how it will affect the future management of High Court media claims ... more
Mouhammad Tabbaa and Pamela Tabbaa v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd
Nine's chief witness of truth paints a picture of brutality at the hands of her father, brother, uncles and grandmother ... In between testimony that she was beaten, spat on and forced to undergo a "virginity test" in Jordan, Nadia Tabbaa breaks down ... more
Judge-alone hearings to prevail in Federal Court defamation trials
Full Federal Court delivers another blow to uniform defamation law, finding the Federal Court's judge-alone provisions prevail over any in the Defamation Act 2005 with regard to juries ... Sydney University media law academic Professor David Rolph examines the judgment and its implications ... more
Tariq Alsaifi v Trinity Mirror plc & Board of Directors, and the Secretary of State for Education
Attempt to re-litigate a failed defamation claim over the same material is dismissed as an abuse of process - but not of the Jameel variety ... Media Lawyer's Mike Dodd reports on an interesting decision from one of the UK High Court's newest (and youngest) judges, Matthew Nicklin ... more
Mouhammad Tabbaa and Pamela Tabbaa v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd
Main plaintiff in defamation proceedings against Nine over 60 Minutes "child abduction" story claims all the allegations aired about him are "utterly, utterly false" ... This, despite consular records supporting his daughter's account and the evidence of three AVOs taken out against him ... more
Google challenges the Supreme Court of Canada’s global injunction in the United States
Google has obtained an order from a US District Court to prevent enforcement of a Canadian injunction requiring Google to delist search results worldwide ... Sydney University law lecturer Michael Douglas reviews the decision ... more
Book review: Online Publication Claims: A Practical Guide
Just how useful is the recent UK book Online Publication Claims: A Practical Guide? NSW District Court Defamation List Judge Judith Gibson examines the detail and finds much to recommend, just in time for Christmas, and beyond ... more