Federal Court rules against Daily Telegraph in Geoffrey Rush defamation hearing
Geoffrey Rush has succeeded in having parts of The Daily Telegraph’s defence “struck out” after the newspaper carried stories accusing the actor of “inappropriate behaviour” while performing on a Sydney stage.
In a judgment this morning, Justice Michael Wigney said the newspaper’s justification defence should not be heard when the case comes to trial on the basis it was too “vague and imprecise”.
Three paragraphs of its qualified privilege should also be dismissed, he ruled, as they were too “ambiguous” and “likely to cause prejudice and delay in future conduct of the proceedings”.
Interested to know which of these happened:
1. They didn’t consult legal – or didn’t consult them properly/ignored legal – prior to publishing.
2. They were incorrectly advised that it was ok.
3. Its a bit of a test case.
4. They didn’t expect Rush to push back due to the current cultural epoch.
5. All the above.
6. Something I haven’t thought of
Hold on. I’m just getting my popcorn.
I thought I had seen somewhere that the Herald Sun editor sent out a memo to staff in Melbourne telling them not to retweet or republish the story on the day it came out in Sydney? (Correct me if I’m wrong.) I would have thought that this indicated that not everyone in News thought it that taking the legal risk with the story was a good idea…
And two months on it appears all the appeals against the rulings have been exhausted when the Full Bench denied News leave to rehear the question of whether their defences of justification (truth) and qualified privilege (public interest) ought to be allowed.
Without these defences, News and Mr Moran stand pantless, or even legless, and it would appear they would seek to settle rather than face a merciless drubbing in court from September 3.
Given the settlement in Rebel Wilson, the settlement in this one could be huge. Mr Rush has a massive international reputation and his team have already indicated the damaging effect on his personal and professional life. $10m is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Remember the issue at stake is not the facts of the case, i.e. whether Mr Rush behaved inappropriately toward Eryn Jean Norvill while carrying her, as the deceased Cordelia, in the final scene of King Lear, on the last four nights of the STC season, but News Ltd’s behaviour in choosing to publish based on scant, unverified information at the time. Contrast their behaviour to that of another more responsible paper, documented in the recent Meryl Streep movie ‘The Post’