The High Court has rejected an appeal challenging a ruling that found a failed political candidate liable for defamatory responses made by readers of two Facebook posts he published that labelled a South Australian businessman greedy and selfish, but the court has left the door open to weigh in on the issue of secondary publication of social media comments.
The chief of the Australian Defence Force has been given the opportunity to put on further evidence after a judge said he would otherwise order that material provided to a war crimes inquiry by Ben Roberts-Smith be produced in the war veteran’s defamation case against three news publishers.
In what is believed to be a first in Australia, a judge hearing a defamation case between two Sydney lawyers has found that an emoji is capable of carrying a defamatory imputation.
Nationwide News may not accept liability for a series of allegedly defamatory tweets published from reporter Miranda Devine’s personal account about 9-year-old Quaden Bayles, telling a judge the tweets were “private”.
A convicted drug smuggler is suing Channel Nine over a segment on A Current Affair that accused him of being a police informer and which a judge branded as “dangerous and irresponsible reporting” after he was attacked in prison.
In airing a ‘7:30′ segment that revealed racehorses were being slaughtered in violation of industry rules, the ABC acted with malice in what was a “set up” designed to make the head of Racing NSW “look bad”, a court has heard.
An Australian mother who posted a viral video of her son, who suffers from achondroplasia dwarfism, following a bullying incident has hit the Daily Telegraph’s publisher with a defamation lawsuit over a reporter’s retweet of conspiracy theories that the video was a fake.
Media companies that are fighting defamation proceedings over articles that accused decorated war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith of war crimes have won court permission to amend their defence to include evidence the soldier was involved in another alleged murder.
Underworld figure Mick Gatto has been denied a trial by jury in his defamation proceedings against the ABC, with the judge-only hearing scheduled to start next week.
Venture capitalist Elaine Stead has refused to go into a second round of mediation in her defamation case against the Nine-owned Fairfax Media Publications saying it would be a “waste of time”.