Tennis Australia and Defamation
Players and coaches across many disciplines of sport face abuse and harassment both on-court and online. Despite sports such as tennis holding the well-established rule that the audience must remain silent, players and coaches face a barrage of disrespectful and irritating comments during games. Often during drawn-out games players respond to such comments, calling out […]
Clive Palmer to bear Mark McGowan’s Cross-Claim costs in their defamation proceeding
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee has ordered Clive Palmer to pay part of the costs from his defamation proceeding with Mark McGowan. Clive Palmer initiated defamation proceedings against Mark McGowan following defamatory statements made at a press conference in 2020. Mr McGowan’s comments included labelling Mr Palmer an “enemy of the state” after he and […]
Shane Bazzi wins defamation case on appeal against Peter Dutton
Peter Dutton, the current leader of the Liberal Party and former Minister of Defence and Leader of the House in the Morrison government has recently lost his defamation case on appeal against refugee advocate, Shane Bazzi. In February 2021, Bazzi tweeted a link to an article which quoted Dutton. The tweet allegedly claimed that refugee […]
Sanicki Lawyers acts in successful defence of statutory qualified privilege in Supreme Court defamation proceedings
Sanicki Lawyers has acted in the successful defence of defamation proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria, in the matter of Srecko and David Lorbek v Peter King [2022] VSC 218. On 5 May 2022, Justice Michael McDonald ruled that the defamation claim brought by luxury car dealers Srecko Lorbek and David Lorbek against Peter […]
Son of King’s Cross identity loses defamation case he brought against the Sunday Telegraph
Daniel Taylor, the son of John Ibrahim, recently lost his defamation case against The Sunday Telegraph after the presiding Justice Anna Katzmann found that the Sydney newspaper did not insinuate Taylor was a ‘mobster’. Mr Taylor, who has taken his mother’s surname, sued the newspaper and the journalist responsible for writing a 24-page spread some […]
Instagram call-out account Diet Prada is being sued, so what does this mean for local creators?
The prolific reach of Instagram influencers is undeniable – it’s in the name. However, when it comes to your content centring around commentary on individuals and commercial entities, where is the line drawn between freedom of speech and character assassination? As a direct result of contemporary ‘call-out culture’ phenomenon, various local social media creators and […]
Instagram call-out account Diet Prada is being sued, so what does this mean for local creators?
Interesting article by Bianca ONeill on FashionJournal.com.au about defamation and social media quoting our own Jonathan Xian! Will the groundbreaking defamation case brought by Dolce & Gabbana change the landscape for call-out account creators? The news about famed Instagram call-out account Diet Prada being sued has surely instilled fear in the hearts of the (often […]
A Step Forward in Defamation Law
A Step Forward in Defamation Law by Monique Fisher. Since the inception of online reviewing platforms such as Google, keyboard warriors have had the ability to leave (sometimes scathing) reviews of businesses and products whilst hiding behind anonymous accounts. Although the option to have your personal information concealed whilst leaving feedback can promote honest criticism […]
In their ‘Rush’ to deliver a story, newspaper finds themselves in court fronting defamation allegations
In May this year, Justice Wigney of the Federal Court awarded actor Geoffrey Rush a monumental $2.87 million payout after he won a case against the Daily Telegraph’s publisher Nationwide News. Rush will receive the highest defamation payout to a single individual in Australia’s history, following the rescindment on appeal of Rebel Wilson’s record-breaking payout […]
In their ‘Rush’ to deliver a story, newspaper finds themselves in court fronting defamation allegations
In May this year, Justice Wigney of the Federal Court awarded actor Geoffrey Rush a monumental $2.87 million payout after he won a case against the Daily Telegraph’s publisher Nationwide News. Rush will receive the highest defamation payout to a single individual in Australia’s history, following the rescindment on appeal of Rebel Wilson’s record-breaking payout […]
Rebel with a Cause
In June of last year, Rebel Wilson won the largest defamation payout in Australian history, with a cool $4.56 million in damages. The payout came after the Court decided that statements made in Women’s Day and the Australian Women’s Weekly accusing her of having lied about her age, real name, and details of her upbringing, […]
Google Not ‘Feeling Lucky’ After Failed Defamation Appeal
Internet search engines and third-party content providers in Australia have been given a sobering new perspective of the legal landscape in which they operate. In 2015, Justice Blue held that Google should be liable as a secondary publisher of defamatory information yielded in its search results. The Full Court of the Supreme Court of South […]