We should all be careful before saying anything that will hurt our politicians’ feelings: they might sue us for defamation. On Tuesday, Treasurer Joe Hockey was awarded A$200,000 damages against Fairfax Media in relation to a series of publications that focused on his political fundraising activities.
That this case was brought at all is ridiculous. That Hockey won is absurd. His victory marks a dark day for freedom of speech in Australia.
In a lengthy decision, Federal Court Justice Richard White found that Hockey was defamed by a poster advertising the story’s headline, and tweets on Twitter linking to the articles. Significantly, the court found that the actual articles that the poster and the tweets related to were not defamatory.
Don’t newspapers have a defence in these kinds of cases?
The means of publication proved critical. By the nature of the medium, the poster was brief. It contained the words: “Treasurer For Sale”. The tweets contained a similar message, but also a hyperlink to electronic versions of the Fairfax stories.
The court accepted that these headlines were written merely to attract readers to the actual story. Nevertheless, it found that the meaning of tweets and posters may be determined in isolation, without reference to the story.
The court awarded $200,000 in damages: $120,000 for the poster and $80,000 for two tweets. The award followed the usual principles for awarding damages in defamation cases. Among other reasons, the damages were awarded to Hockey as “consolation” for the distress and hurt caused.
There is uniform law in Australia providing a defence of “qualified privilege”. The defence protects publishers like Fairfax Media that provide information to recipients (the public) who have some interest in receiving it.
Read the full article, The Conversation here, where there are full hyperlinks …
• John Hawkins in Comments: Abetz started his spat with me with a threat to sue for defamation. The subject of the defamation was payments by Gunns Ltd of large sums of money to the Liberal Party. I took great exception to this threat and pushed back discovering that a major payment was made when he held office as Minister of Forests. He sent two men from his office to suggest that it would be in my interest to lay off the Senator. I took even greater exception to this appalling behaviour. I took him to the High Court. He has yet to be audited by the ATO over his land deals on the Channel Highway as detailed on TT: HERE . He sat illegally in the parliament as a dual national from 1994 until 2010 when he renounced his German Citizenship – you cannot renounce a citizenship you do not have. How and why is Abetz that powerful? His behaviour as a representative of the people in almost every field leaves a lot to be desired yet he remains a defining icon of the so called Liberal Party.
