Counsel for Channel Nine, Bruce McClintock SC, argues that the former mayor of Waverley, Jim Markham was party to two recordings involving plans to torture and kill a male prostitute – so they couldn’t be private. Are producer Andrew Byrne and reporter Ben Fordham off the hook? ... more
The temperature rises in courtroom 9B as a former male prostitute whom ex-Waverley mayor Jim Markham allegedly wanted tortured and killed, gives evidence. The trial of Channel Nine and two of its journalists over alleged breaches of the Listening Devices Act hears a new theory ... more
The Crown’s key witness gets a stiff warning from Justice Elizabeth Fullerton after an afternoon of first-rate dissembling. Adam Tolmie’s evidence appears strangely at odds with what’s in front of him ... more
The DPP’s case against A Current Affair producer Andrew Byrne, reporter Ben Fordham and Channel Nine for allegedly recording and broadcasting private conversations begins to sound like another series of Underbelly ... Sickening details of the proposed torture of a male prostitute allegedly ordered by the former mayor of Waverley ... more
London media lawyer Anastasia Nicholas reviews the first UK Facebook-related libel/privacy case to award damages and reports on a dangerous new precedent – the “false privacy” claim ... more
Sex tapes privacy case fails to get off the ground. The Victorian Court of Appeal affirms that there is no invasion of privacy tort in Australian law, but, following UK law, awards damages of $40,000 for mental distress in a claim for breach of confidence ... more
Britain’s High Court of Justice awards Max Mosley damages of £60,000 for News of the World invasion of privacy that alleged the son of wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley engaged in a “sick Nazi orgy”. Mr Justice Eady finds no public interest or justification in the paper’s clandestine filming and subsequent publication of Mosley’s S & M sessions ... more
Professor Michael Tilbury from the New South Wales Law Reform Commission builds his case for a statutory action in privacy ... more
The ABC has abandoned its appeal in the threshold privacy case Jane Doe v ABC. Peter Applegarth SC looks at where that leaves the tort of invasion of privacy in Australian law and what’s at stake if we follow the English courts ... more
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
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
Western Australia Court of Appeal upholds decision that prevented Channel Seven from broadcasting a “hidden camera” recording of a private conversation between an employer and an employee ... more
