Press Council chair David Weisbrot calls for law reform in wake of Hockey defamation case
APC chairman Weisbrot
The chair of the Australian Press Council David Weisbrot has spoken out in the wake of treasurer Joe Hockey defamation win against publisher Fairfax Media, calling for law reform in the area as a “high priority”.
In a statement issued this afternoon Weisbrot said: “If we are serious about free speech and freedom of the press in Australia, then we must tackle defamation law reform as a high priority.
“The current law seriously inhibits investigative reporting and robust political debate and, make no mistake, politicians of all stripes are heavy users of defamation writs.”
Weisbrot then took aim at the Hockey vs Fairfax cause which yesterday saw the politician awarded some $200,000 damages after the court found the politician had been defamed through a poster published by The Sydney Morning Herald and two tweets by The Age.
“This is particularly inappropriate since elected politicians can use the floor of Parliament and the extraordinary protections of parliamentary privilege to state their positions and defend their reputations.
“The need for defamation law reform in Australia is all the more urgent because, unlike virtually all other Western democracies, we do not have an express Constitutional or statutory guarantee of freedom of speech or freedom of the press that can be relied upon to temper the harsher effects of the law.
“I’m not suggesting that defamation actions should be abolished entirely, since reputations are very important and maybe even more so in the Internet age when allegations travel at the speed of light and the published record is difficult, if not impossible, to erase.”
The chair of the Press Council, who only took on the role in March, argued defamation should only be a “last port of call” and urged aggrieved parties to look to the publisher funded industry complaint body to avoid major legal costs.
“A defamation action should be the last port of call, not the first,” he said. For example, the Press Council regularly handles and resolves complaints similar to the Treasurer’s as an alternative to lengthy and expensive litigation. Aggrieved persons can also argue their own cases through the media and especially through social media. Using the court system to assign a dollar value to bruised feelings is a crude way of achieving the same outcome.
Weisbrot also compared Australia to other similar western democracies noting the laws in those countries have been tightened to protect the rich and powerful from using defamation to restrict free speech.
“It is notable that public figures in the United States rarely pursue – and even more rarely succeed – in defamation actions because the law requires them to prove ‘actual malice’ on the part of the publisher. Similarly, defamation law has been reformed in the UK to accord with modern notions of robust free speech and the critical role of the media in holding politicians and the rich and powerful to account.
“The Press Council would be happy to lead a reform process in this area, or to participate in one we regard as meaningful. Consistent with our role in advocating for free speech and press freedom, the Council may be uniquely suited for this, because the organisation is composed equally of publishers and independent members who represent the public interest.”
Nic Christensen
If the media want greater free speech and freedom of press, then racial vilification must be removed from the Racial Discrimination Act . You can’t have it both ways.
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Spot on “Reader”. And how interesting that when the luvvie-Left media cop a black eye and a judicial and financial bollocking, suddenly there’s a need for “law reform”, but when the boot’s on the other foot, law reform isn’t mentioned.
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It would be interesting Mike is you could define who is the “luvvie-Left media” you are writing about. Especially as there is very little luvvie-Left media in Australia. Are to aiming this comment at the Green Left Weekly? Hardly a big player.
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Only Fairfax and ABC, Lindsay. Just those couple of small ones.
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Wonder if Weisbrot would be coming forward so quickly and strongly if either:
a) It was a case against NewsCorp
b) If anyone from the Labor or Greens won a similar case.
We know the answer is ‘no’.
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Robbo, if you think Fairfax and the ABC are left wing then you must be viewing politics from a very long way from the right.
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Fairfax isn’t left-wing. Fairfax sits on a fence and picks sides when it chooses, to sell a story. ABC however is definitely left of the spectrum.
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Sorry Viewer, but there have been many investigations in the the so called ‘left bias’ at the ABC. The same result every time. There is no left bias. What there is, is an ongoing effort the present a balance of views. This involves more than one point of view being given time. That is not and never has been a ‘left bias’. However this requirement does get up the nose of many from the right. Especially when they see their views being held to account. This sort of thing does not happen on News Corp. publications or at Fairfax.
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Of course the SMH and ABC are luvvie-left media.
I was discussing this over dinner just the other night with some friends and Adolf, Benito, Kim Jong, Francisco, Pol, Augusto .. they ALL agreed,
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If the press council actually were effective in dealing with defamation there would be no need for lawyers but when you have exhausted all other avenues and the publication will not correct comments then a defamation case is the only option and then the publisher has only themselves to blame for not righting the wrong which can sometimes do a lot more damage than just bruised feelings.
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Britain has reformed the defamation law. Why not Australia. We either protect freedom of expression or we allow anybody with a fat wallet to scare the media away from its watchdog function through defamation suits.
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