Media giant Nine has defended reporting that allegedly implied former Victorian Liberal party vice president Marcus Bastiaan engaged in illegal branch stacking, arguing the coverage was justified and that federal assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar was in on the scheme.
Nine subsidiary Fairfax Media has agreed to pay compensation to a Papua New Guinea politician who sued the publisher for defamation for allegedly engaging in a “smear campaign”, with a judge making an order of compensation despite a “ludicrous” objection from Fairfax.
Liberal MP Christian Porter has won his bid to block Nine and News Corp from using secret portions of ABC’s defence to his defamation allegations that the media giants accessed as intervenors in the former Attorney-General’s case.
A Gold Coast developer must re-plead allegations in a defamation lawsuit against Fairfax over an article alleging he met a former Ipswich mayor at a brothel, after a judge struck out several claims that he described as “spectacularly imaginative and utterly unreasonable”.
Liberal MP Christian Porter has asked a court to ensure Nine and News Corp. do not use secret portions of ABC’s defence to his defamation allegations, which the media giants accessed as intervenors in the former federal Attorney-General’s case.
Trial in war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation case over articles accusing him of war crimes has been adjourned until November in light of the current COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney, which a judge noted could be extended beyond the month of August.
A witness for two Nine-owned newspapers sued by Ben Roberts-Smith has been accused of fabricating a story that the war veteran kicked his step-uncle off a cliff before ordering him to be shot to gain compensation from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
An appeals court has thrown out an appeal by a Sydney man who sought greater damages for being incorrectly named in media reports as the driver in a fatal hit-and-run.
Media giant Nine has paid more than $150,000 in fines and will repay subscribers and advertisers $450,000 for allegedly slapping them with excessive payment surcharges on credit card transactions.
Ben Roberts-Smith took the stand on Thursday after publishers accused of defaming him detailed how the war veteran allegedly murdered six civilians and engaged in a cover up campaign, with the soldier saying he was “devastated” by the allegations.