Chau Chak Wing’s $590,000 defamation win shows investigative journalism is risky business
Michael Douglas unpacks Chau Chak Wing’s victory over the ABC, Fairfax, and Nick McKenzie, and explains why investigative journalism is still so legally risky, in this crossposting from The Conversation.
What are the biggest domestic news stories you remember from the last few years?
Apart from all the natural disasters, I think of stories about George Pell, the coverage that led to the Banking Royal Commission, the SAS in Afghanistan and because I am a law nerd, the reporting on former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon.
Many of these stories are the product of investigative journalism. This is not the sort of “journalism” you see in a tabloid rag or a late-night rant on Sky News. It is the type of high-quality journalism that takes time and patience.
