Defamation

A judge has ordered a Victoria local councillor to pay a developer $205,000 in damages after finding he was responsible for comments on a community Facebook page he ran that alleged the developer was corrupt.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has dropped a High Court appeal seeking to overturn a Full Court judgment that found a tweet by refugee activist Shane Bazzi labeling him a "rape apologist" was not defamatory.

A judge has found that a 60 Minutes broadcast by Nine, but not a related article, carried defamatory meanings about Euro Pacific Bank boss Peter Schiff, saying the broadcast's  use of ominous music and shadowy figures invited judgment from viewers.

Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch has filed a bid to strike out Crikey publisher Private Media’s defence to a defamation suit over an article allegedly linking the media mogul to the US Capital riot, claiming the Australian publisher’s recent public statements directed “hate and ridicule” towards him.

Crikey publisher Private Media has hit back at a defamation lawsuit filed by Fox News CEO Lachlan Murdoch, arguing that an article allegedly linking him to the US Capitol riot covered matters in the public interest and was not taken “literally” by readers.

The Daily Mail is appealing a judge’s decision to award Nine sports presenter Erin Molan $150,000 over an article concerning an on-air remark she made about the pronunciation of National Rugby League Polynesian player names.

Nine Network has apologised to former member for Bowman, Andrew Laming, over a news segment that accused him of taking a lewd photograph, having struck a confidential settlement after the broadcaster dropped all defences to the politician's defamation case.

A judge has called off a pre-trial hearing to determine whether the new serious harm element in Australia's defamation laws is satisfied in a case brought by a weight lifting coach, citing an “unfortunate turn of events".

A former special forces commander has sued the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over two stories which he claims implied that he “callously killed” a prisoner and committed war crimes while in Afghanistan in 2012.

A man has sued Nine over an episode of a true crime show which he alleges depicted him as a suspect in the unsolved murder of a teenaged girl in 1997.