Category Archives: Australian media

Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: lip-reader tells court CCTV footage showed Brittany Higgins was being ‘plied with alcohol’ on night of alleged rape

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Lehrmann has sued Lisa Wilkinson and Network Ten for defamation in the federal court of Australia over Brittany Higgins interview on The Project. Follow updates

Justice Lee denies request from Brown’s team to clear court of all but accredited media

Justice Michael Lee has denied a request from Fiona Brown’s legal team that the court be cleared of everyone but accredited media.

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Lehrmann proceedings day 18 – as it happened

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Meakin agreed that The Project was “going further” towards identifying Lehrmann than Samantha Maiden’s article in news.com.au which was published first.

He said The Project was relying on Maiden’s article to promote the program that evening and that the promotion could improve ratings.

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Brittany Higgins told senior colleague she remembered Bruce Lehrmann on top of her, defamation trial hears

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Linda Reynolds’ then chief of staff Fiona Brown was first to interview pair after alleged rape, which Lehrmann has always denied

Former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown was dramatically compelled to give evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial on Monday on the proviso the federal court’s live stream was disabled while she was in the witness box.

Brown was Senator Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff at the time Brittany Higgins claims Lehrmann raped her on the ministerial couch, and was the first person to interview both of them. She took contemporaneous notes.

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Tech giants could be forced to share secret news deals under Australia’s media bargaining code

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New legislation will help ensure sustainability of public interest journalism, Labor says

Tech giants could be forced to hand over sensitive details on how they distribute news on their platforms to Australia’s competition watchdog as part of the federal government’s commitment to levelling the playing field for public interest journalism in the digital age.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will undertake periodic reporting into how platforms subject to the media bargaining code are distributing news content on sites and whether significant bargaining power imbalances between the tech giants and media organisations exist.

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Lisa Wilkinson tells court she was ‘largely out of the picture’ in lead up to Brittany Higgins broadcast

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial also hears Wilkinson didn’t receive detailed summary of producer’s call with prime minister’s office

Lisa Wilkinson says she was “largely out of the picture” in the days leading up to the broadcast of The Project’s interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021, a federal court has heard.

Wilkinson and Ten are co-respondents in a defamation trial brought by Bruce Lehrmann who says he was defamed by a rape allegation made by Higgins on Ten’s The Project. Lehrmann was not named but says he was identifiable.

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Lisa Wilkinson rejects idea she put ‘pride and ego’ before Bruce Lehrmann’s right to a fair trial

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Broadcaster also hits back during defamation trial at suggestion she was ‘captured’ by Brittany Higgins and had no desire to ‘check or scrutinise anything she said’

Lisa Wilkinson has hit back at suggestions she behaved “like a cheap tabloid journalist” in her handling of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, saying her team investigated the story “extremely well”.

The broadcaster’s much-anticipated evidence began on Thursday in the federal court, where she is facing lengthy cross-examination by Bruce Lehrmann’s legal team.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: judge orders Sky News to produce alleged secret recording of Brittany Higgins’ lawyer

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Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court of Australia for defamation. Follow the latest news and updates from the trial today

Project producer says David Sharaz told him Higgins had been to police again

Llewellyn is now being asked about what role, if any, The Project played in Higgins reactivating her complaint about the alleged rape with ACT police in 2021.

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Sex crimes squad informed of 2017 complaint against Alan Jones

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Jones strongly denies allegations as NSW police confirm there is no current investigation into Jones but say sex crimes squad will try to contact complainant this week

New South Wales police say they will this week try to speak to a person who made a complaint about Alan Jones to officers in 2017, after the police commissioner, Karen Webb, said last week that no complaints had been made about the broadcaster.

She made the comments during a press conference on Friday after allegations of indecent assault were published in the Sydney Morning Herald the day before. Jones has strongly denied the allegations and has threatened legal action.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: Brittany Higgins’ mother tells court hearing of her daughter’s alleged rape was a ‘mother’s worst nightmare’

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The defamation action against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson was due to finish on Thursday but may extend until Monday. Follow the latest news and updates from the trial today

  • A warning for readers: this blog contains graphic details of allegations of sexual assault.

Defence liaison officer told Higgins found in ‘state of undress’, court hears

Payne gave evidence that early in the week following the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, he had been told by minister Linda Reynolds’s chief-of-staff, Fiona Brown, about an incident involving Lehrmann in Parliament House.

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The defamation trial gripping Australia: Bruce Lehrmann, Brittany Higgins and the witnesses so far

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An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office is being interrogated by weeks of testimony and cross-examination in a defamation trial brought by the accused

It has become one of Australia’s most convoluted and damaging political sagas, polarising the public.

An allegation of rape, fiercely denied, in a ministerial office in Parliament House has been discussed in news reports, interviews, speeches, and reams of commentary. It was examined in an aborted criminal trial, covered in four separate inquiries and now the first of several related civil cases is again calling witnesses and poring over evidence.

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Melbourne’s Anna Schwartz gallery drops artist Mike Parr after political piece on Israel-Gaza war

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Gallery owner, who has represented Parr for 36 years, says she was sickened by ‘hate graffiti’ in the work, but denies censoring it and has kept it on display

The Melbourne gallery owner Anna Schwartz has dropped the provocative performance artist Mike Parr after a 36-year relationship, after a piece commenting on Israel’s military action in Gaza.

Schwartz sent Parr a two-sentence email on Sunday, the day after he installed the third part of his exhibition Sunset Claws, informing him she would no longer represent him.

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: lipreader allowed to testify about what Lehrmann, Brittany Higgins and others said in bar CCTV footage

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Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court of Australia for defamation. Follow the latest news and updates from the trial today

Before the lunch break Justice Lee is hearing legal argument about the admissibility of evidence from two experts called by the defence.

One is a lip-reading expert based in the UK who has watched the CCTV footage from the Dock and interpreted what the subjects were saying.

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Final question time of the year – as it happened

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MPs don casual wear for late-night sitting

Given the late sitting (the house has been doing “family friendly” hours for most of the year, which has made sittings past 8pm or 8.30pm rare) there were a few more casual looks on the benches than we are used to.

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Brittany Higgins volunteered to be defamation trial witness as she ‘would not let rapist become a millionaire’, court hears

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Higgins also tells court she had ‘no issue’ with a second criminal trial but it was ruled out by her medical condition

Brittany Higgins has told the federal court she volunteered to give evidence in any defamation case brought by her alleged rapist Bruce Lehrmann because she “would not let my rapist become a millionaire for being a rapist”.

On her final day in the witness box Higgins was asked by Lehrmann’s barrister, Steve Whybrow SC, why she posted on social media about defending any defamation cases six days after it was announced charges against Lehrmann had been dropped due to fears about her mental health.

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Channel Seven paid $4,000 a fortnight in rent for Bruce Lehrmann interview, documents reveal

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Document uploaded by the federal court suggests former Liberal staffer’s deal with the network may be worth $104,000

Channel Seven paid Bruce Lehrmann’s fortnightly rent of $4,000 for a period in June for exclusive access to the former Liberal staffer, according to documents uploaded by the federal court.

Seven agreed in a separate exclusivity document, which was also uploaded on Tuesday, to pay Lehrmann’s rent for 12 months in return for exclusive access to him from mid-2023 to mid-2024.

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Jacinta Price declined 52 ABC interview requests to discuss Indigenous voice referendum

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A report by the national broadcaster found the prominent no campaigner ‘did not agree to a single interview on a major broadcast program’

High-profile no campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price turned down interview requests from the ABC to discuss the voice referendum more than 52 times, according to the national broadcaster’s referendum coverage review committee report.

The report found the yes campaign had about twice as much coverage overall as the no campaign. The reasons for that, according to the report, included a lack of people willing to come on to discuss the no side, time taken up by government press conferences which often argued for the yes vote, and a decision to focus on First Nations voices, who were predominantly arguing for yes.

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Walkley awards to review ‘chequebook journalism’ rules after Bruce Lehrmann rent payment revealed in court

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The journalism foundation board did not say it would withdraw Seven’s shortlisting for the 2023 scoop of the year award for Liam Bartlett’s interview with Lehrmann

The Walkley board will review its rules on “chequebook journalism” after it emerged that the Seven Network paid Bruce Lehrmann’s rent for a year to secure an interview that was later nominated for the 2023 scoop of the year award.

But a statement released on Sunday by the foundation, which oversees Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards, did not reverse or retrospectively invalidate the nomination. As of Sunday evening, Seven’s interview was still listed on the Walkley website as a shortlisted finalist.

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Brittany Higgins wore dress she was allegedly raped in to Liberal function weeks later to ‘reclaim it’, court hears

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Former Liberal staffer tells federal court defamation trial she initially thought she could ‘disassociate’ from the alleged rape

Brittany Higgins has told a court she wore the white dress she was allegedly raped in six weeks later to a Liberal function in an attempt to “reclaim it” and “disassociate it from the rape”.

But what was once her “favourite” pencil dress that she “used to wear all the time” was not reclaimed and was never worn again, Higgins told the federal court on Friday.

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Lehrmann proceedings day seven – as it happened

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Brittany Higgins says she does not count Linda Reynolds and her chief of staff Fiona Brown as villains in her story.

“Fiona Brown was just following instructions and I’ve never blamed her and I don’t blame her,” Higgins said.

“Linda Reynolds avoided me in my view, and did not meet her duty of care. I felt unsupported. I felt unsupported by both of them, but I don’t count them as villains in this story. I just don’t think they did the right thing by me.”

Higgins said her experience damaged her relationship with the Liberal party and she revealed she is no longer a Liberal.

She denied a suggestion from Whybrow that she leaked her story to the media in order to damage the Liberal party ahead of the election.

“I had no intention of impacting the election, but I did want to change the culture in Parliament House,” Higgins said.

“I was angry at the culture of Parliament House and I was hurt by the Liberal party, but I was still a Liberal.

“No longer, but I was still for a really long time.”

• an earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the election referred to as being in 2019

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Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial live: Brittany Higgins tells court accusation she lied about rape to keep job is ‘insulting’ and ‘incorrect’

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A warning for readers: this blog contains graphic details of allegations of sexual assault. Lehrmann is suing Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson in the federal court of Australia over allegations Higgins was raped by a Liberal staffer in Parliament House. Follow the latest news and updates

Higgins questioned about sequence of events

Steve Whybrow SC asked Higgins: “I’m suggesting to you that you alter and evolve your evidence as you find that extra information. Do you accept that?”

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