23 Results

There’s a trend towards journalists being taken to court for refusing to give up their sources. Freelance journalist Sally Whyte looks at some recent cases and asks what the effect is on investigative journalism and media freedom.

My own experience in this and other defamation matters perhaps gives me a different perspective to many people on the balance there should be between critical commentary and reporting on political matters.

Today, Professor of Journalism at Bond University and the author of The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law Mark Pearson states the obvious in Crikey.

The editor in Chief of The Australian newspaper, Chris Mitchell, has sent a letter of demand to journalism academic, Julie Posetti, confirming he will pursue her for defamation over a series of tweets .

The accuracy of a series of tweets at the centre of a landmark defamation case is about to be proved or disproved, thanks to the release of a tape recording of the conference where the alleged defamation occurred.

The Australian’s lack of interest in intellectual substance and quality debate has now become an effort to silence them elsewhere. The editor-in-chief’s decision to sue for comments on Twitter is a new low.

Threats by editor-in-chief of the Australian Chris Mitchell to sue journalism academic Julie Posetti are all bluff.

Lara Bingle (and Max Markson, naturally) is taking Brendan Fevola to court for breach of privacy, defamation and misuse of her image. But does she really have a case? Legal experts Jason Bosland and Vicki Huang take the stand.

Some forensic rigour has been applied to the word ‘ankles’ in Ray Chesterton’s defamation action against 2UE in the NSW Supreme Court this week, writes Richard Ackland.

A blogger posts inflammatory comments online about a Vogue model. A court then insists the blogger be identified, so the model can sue for defamation. What if that happened in Australia? Would it change what people wrote online?

How to get sued in 140 characters or fewer: a woman complained to her 20 followers on Twitter about her real estate agents. Now they’re hitting her up for $50,000 for defamation.

As Mark Twain said, writing long before the arrival of the internet, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has its trousers on.

I am as thick-skinned as the next commentator, probably more so, but there is no point in having dialogue with people who have a visceral hatred for you personally, writes Peter Faris.

Macquarie Bank’s protracted defamation case against the The Australian over a 2005 article about the bank’s involvement with the Beaconsfield Mine has been dismissed with costs, writes Chris Paver.

There is a legal case unfolding in Queensland, against Simon Wright, the host of a popular IT blogsite called Whirlpool, that every blogger should keep a watching brief over as it could set an unpleasant precedent for freedom of speech.

Amazing but true. The Age newspaper has received just one writ for defamation in the last 18 months. How could this be? In the same period the paper has seen a resurgence in investigative reporting and some gutsy sleuthing on gangland killings and religious cults.