A group of IP lawyers has warned the Government will have to proceed carefully in establishing a mandatory code under which Google and Facebook would be forced to pay news publishers for content, saying such a move could be struck down under existing High Court precedent.
A criminal defence lawyer who represented convicted criminal Salim Mehajer has sued Fairfax Media over an article by a Sydney Morning Herald gossip columnist that allegedly implies she breached her oath as a solicitor for being romantically involved with clients.
A last-minute bid by the Federal Attorney-General to protect national security information has delayed an interlocutory hearing in war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation lawsuit, potentially pushing out the trial date.
The Australian Federal Police has dropped its investigation of journalist Annika Smethurst over a series of News Corp articles that allegedly disclosed national security information, a decision applauded by the Law Council of Australia.
Australia’s competition regulator has asked technology companies, news outlets and other stakeholders to grapple with some of the complex issues required to develop the Government’s new mandatory code, which will see digital giants such as Google and Facebook forced to bargain with publishers and pay for news content.
Nine-owned Fairfax Media has been hit with a defamation lawsuit by Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Trade & Commerce, who claims the Australian Financial Review engaged in a “smear campaign” by publishing an article accusing him of corruption, bribery and money laundering.
Atanaskovic Hartnell has mostly come up short in a court battle for over $172,000 in legal fees, with a judge finding the law firm was in a “manifest position of conflict” in its dispute with two media companies defrauded by one of its former lawyers, Brody Clarke.
War veteran Ben Roberts-Smith has told a judge hearing defamation proceedings against several media companies over articles accusing him of war crimes that he can only be vindicated if he is allowed to give evidence in open court, as the Federal Government seeks to impose restrictions on the case due to national security concerns.
Politicians are “rarely nice to each other” and go out of their way to harm the reputation of others, a lawyer for former Senator David Leyonhjelm has told the Full Court in appealing a $120,000 damages bill for defamatory comments he was found to have made about Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Digital giants Google and Facebook will be required to pay for news content under a new mandatory code being developed by the Government to create a ‘level playing field’ in the Australian media industry, which is facing a sharp decline in advertising revenue driven by the coronavirus.