Category Archives: Australian media

Leaked Brittany Higgins material to be raised in federal court hearing of Bruce Lehrmann defamation case

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The federal court will consider the audio and text messages of Higgins and her partner David Sharaz published by several media outlets

The leaking of private material linked to Brittany Higgins is to be raised in the federal court on Friday during a hearing of the defamation case brought by Bruce Lehrmann against several media outlets.

An audio recording of Higgins, her partner David Sharaz and two Network 10 journalists, along with text messages sent from Higgins to various parties, have been published by multiple outlets over several weeks.

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Major newspapers could face a $40m hit if governments follow Victoria in abandoning print advertising

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Data highlights total government spending on print as experts say Daniel Andrews’ move will be watched

Major metropolitan newspapers could lose up to $40m in advertising revenue if state and federal governments follow Victoria’s lead and pull their print advertising.

In 2022 state and federal governments spent about $40m placing government ads in major capital city newspapers, and another $5m on digital advertising on news websites like heraldsun.com.au and theage.com.au, according to media agency data collected by Standard Media Index.

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Bruce Lehrmann says ABC acted maliciously by showing Brittany Higgins speech, court documents show

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Former political staffer suing national broadcaster over a February 2022 joint address by Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club

Bruce Lehrmann has accused the Australian Broadcasting Corporation of acting maliciously by broadcasting Brittany Higgins’ National Press Club address, saying in court documents it was “wilfully blind” to the risk of her defaming him or making prejudicial comments close to his trial.

Lehrmann is suing the ABC over a joint address by Higgins and Grace Tame to the National Press Club in February 2022, which was broadcast live and later uploaded in full to the ABC’s YouTube channel.

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Ben Roberts-Smith: calls for uniform to be removed from Australian War Memorial display

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Greens say removal would be ‘first step in correcting the official record’ after federal court dismisses defamation case

The Australian War Memorial is facing calls to remove Ben Roberts-Smith’s uniform from its display, after the federal court dismissed the defamation case initiated by Australia’s most decorated living soldier.

But the Australian Special Air Service Association has argued it was “a very disappointing day” for veterans who had served in Afghanistan, saying the majority who had done the right thing were being “re-traumatised after having gone through a difficult war”.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation loss bad news for Seven boss as Nine marks ‘day of justice’

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Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who parachuted the former soldier into a network job in 2015, says ‘the judgment does not accord with the man I know’

For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.

The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.

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Bruce Lehrmann drops defamation case and settles with News Corp over Brittany Higgins reports

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The two parties reportedly settled with News Corp saying it had not paid any damages and the articles in dispute would remain online

Bruce Lehrmann has discontinued defamation proceedings against News Corp over its initial reporting of Brittany Higgins’ allegations after he settled with the media company.

News.com.au said in a statement that the settlement involved the payment of a portion of Lehrmann’s legal costs only.

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News Corp denies it played a part in Stan Grant’s decision to leave Q+A amid racist attacks

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Murdoch’s Australian media chief calls on ABC to ‘correct the record’ after accusations that excessive coverage encouraged racist social media trolls

Rupert Murdoch’s top executive in Australia has defended News Corp’s reporting of the ABC’s coronation broadcast and denied it played a part in Stan Grant’s decision to stand down from hosting Q+A after becoming the target of racist attacks.

News Corp Australasia chief executive Michael Miller responded to an interview on Monday in which the ABC news director Justin Stevens accused News Corp of targeting the ABC because the public broadcaster threatened its business model.

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Stan Grant faced ‘unrelenting racism’, fellow ABC panellists say, as scale of conservative coverage revealed

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Data suggests Sky News and the Australian mentioned the ABC’s coverage of Charles III’s coronation more than 150 times in the past two weeks

The pro-monarchy Liberal party MP Julian Leeser has said fellow ABC coronation panellist Stan Grant faced “unrelenting racism online” in response to the broadcast, as data suggests Sky News and the Australian mentioned the coverage more than 150 times in the past two weeks.

On Friday, Grant announced he would walk away from hosting Q+A after this Monday’s episode following what he said was the media lying and distorting his words while criticising the ABC’s coverage of Charles III’s coronation.

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ABC argues Brittany Higgins broadcast did not identify Bruce Lehrmann and could not have defamed him

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ABC says press club address could not have been defamatory even if Lehrmann’s identity already widely known

The ABC has argued that it did not identify Bruce Lehrmann when it broadcast Brittany Higgins’ and Grace Tame’s National Press Club address and, even if it had, it could not have been defamatory

The ABC says in court documents that if it was “notorious throughout Australia” that Lehrmann was Higgins’ alleged rapist – as Lehrmann’s lawyers have claimed – then its broadcast of the address would not have caused or been likely to cause serious harm to Lehrmann’s reputation.

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Q+A host Stan Grant standing down from ABC show after racist abuse

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The ABC presenter says he has been a media target for racism and for now he’s ‘walking away’

The host of Q+A Stan Grant is standing down from the show after receiving “grotesque racist abuse” which escalated after he spoke on the ABC about the impact of colonialism ahead of the King’s coronation.

Grant said in a column published on the ABC website that after Monday’s episode he was “walking away”.

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News Corp sports journalist Paul Kent faces court after being charged with assaulting ex-girlfriend

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‘Embarrassed’ Daily Telegraph writer and Fox Sports host tells reporters outside court it is his turn in the spotlight of the ‘rugby league soap opera’

The News Corp sports journalist Paul Kent says it is his turn in the spotlight of the “rugby league soap opera” as he faces charges of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

The senior Daily Telegraph writer and television host was charged on the weekend with two domestic violence-related offences after a 33-year-old woman alleged she had been choked at a home in Sydney’s inner west.

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No regrets: Fran Kelly says she understands as ABC fails to renew her talkshow for second season

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Exclusive: Host expresses gratitude to national broadcaster and reflects on delivering a ‘fun, warm and intelligent’ run

High-profile ABC host Fran Kelly says she has no regrets, despite her Friday night talkshow Frankly not being commissioned for a second season.

Kelly told Guardian Australia she was grateful the national broadcaster gave her the opportunity to try something different and she understood there were competing interests to juggle.

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ABC announces job losses amid biggest restructure since 2017

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Managing director, David Anderson, told staff ‘this in no ways diminishes the importance of what we do’

A major ABC restructure will see the abolition of the separate regional and radio division and lead to redundancies of management and staff.

The managing director of the ABC, David Anderson, has moved to assure staff the biggest restructure since 2017 would not mean the importance of the regional bureaux or radio was being downgraded.

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ABC coverage of King Charles III coronation tops Australian ratings despite being attacked by monarchists

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After being accused of being ‘obsequious’ over Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, ABC included discussion of colonialism and monarchy’s relevance

The ABC’s broadcast of King Charles’ coronation was labelled “despicable” by monarchists, but viewers loved it and gave the national broadcaster an easy ratings win over the commercial networks.

The king’s procession averaged 1,182,000 viewers on the ABC, putting it ahead of Seven’s 1,096,000 and Nine’s 738,000, according to OzTAM which now measures viewing through broadcast TV and streaming devices.

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Bluey: scene removed from Exercise episode after complaints about fat-shaming

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Re-edited version omits opening scene after claims of fatphobia and replaces original on ABC and BBC platforms

The ABC has removed part of a Bluey episode that sparked accusations of fat-shaming and fatphobia.

It has now republished a version of the popular cartoon without a bathroom scene that showed Bluey’s parents complaining about their weight.

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The PM, a nightclub mogul and a former convict walk into a wedding. Kyle Sandilands’ invitation was too good to refuse

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The shock jock’s unrivalled ratings and platform have given him the power to pull Anthony Albanese and a premier to his nuptials

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and shock jock Kyle Sandilands may have an easy banter on air and a shared love of music, but no one would have suspected they were good friends, if indeed they are.

Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon, will be guests at Sandilands’ Darling Point marriage to marketing executive Tegan Kynaston in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Saturday.

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Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation proceedings against independent Australian publisher Crikey

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Move comes days after Fox reached a $US787.5m settlement with the voting equipment company Dominion in a separate defamation lawsuit

Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation proceedings against the independent Australian media company Private Media, the publisher of Crikey.

The Fox Corporation CEO said he was ending the case in light of the settlement in the US of the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.

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Brittany Higgins’ and Grace Tame’s full press club address removed after defamation claim against ABC

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The video, which has been removed from the ABC’s YouTube channel, had 127,000 views by the time Bruce Lehrmann’s claim was filed

The video of Brittany Higgins’ and Grace Tame’s full National Press Club address on the treatment of women has been removed from YouTube after defamation proceedings were lodged against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The ABC has for months resisted legal demands for the video to be removed from YouTube, prompting Bruce Lehrmann to sue in the federal court for defamation last week.

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Defence whistleblower David McBride to stand trial four years and eight months after being charged

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Trial set down for 6 November for former military lawyer accused of leaking classified Australian defence information to journalists

Former military lawyer David McBride will have waited four years and eight months before facing trial for allegedly leaking classified defence information to the media.

McBride’s case was mentioned briefly in the ACT supreme court on Thursday morning, the latest step in protracted legal proceedings that have been in train since March 2019.

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Australian media companies reject proposed privacy law reforms

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Coalition of organisations says changes would have ‘devastating impact on press freedom’ and are not in public interest

Media companies have rejected a proposal to reform Australian privacy law, warning that the changes – including a right to sue outlets for serious invasions of privacy – are not in the public interest and would harm press freedom.

The Right to Know coalition warns the attorney general’s department’s proposal, released in February, would have “a devastating impact on press freedom and journalism in Australia without any clearly defined need or benefit”.

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