Category Archives: Australian media

Who shot the dog? The canine killing that could play a crucial role in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial

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Identity of Afghan special forces member who killed stray dog could prove critical in newspapers’ defence

Amid allegations of war crimes, of murder, and of domestic violence, the seemingly inconsequential but bizarre death of a dog has dominated days of evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial.

It has done so because the identity of an Afghan special forces member who shot the stray dog – accidentally injuring an Australian soldier – during an SAS mission in July 2012 could prove critical in an allegation of murder made against Roberts-Smith in the newspapers’ defence.

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Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue reunite for Neighbours finale

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The TV couple are to appear in Australia’s long-running soap opera as production ends after 37 years

They were one of television’s most popular couples, and now they’re getting back together, especially for you – or at least for viewers of Neighbours. Scott and Charlene, played by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue, will return after more than 30 years for the show’s finale.

Jason Herbison, executive producer of the Australian soap, said the pair were “the ultimate Neighbours couple and it would not feel right to end the show without them”.

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Sarah Ferguson to replace Leigh Sales as host of ABC’s 7.30 program

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Former Four Corners presenter has won five Walkley awards in a career with the ABC stretching back to 2008

Investigative reporter Sarah Ferguson will replace Leigh Sales as the presenter of ABC nightly current affairs flagship, 7.30, in July.

Ferguson, who has been reporting from Washington DC for two years, is a forensic long-form reporter and a tough interviewer whose work made headlines when she fronted 7.30 for six months in 2014.

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Seven paid legal fees for witness in Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial until arrangement was revealed in court

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Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing

The Seven Network was paying the legal fees of several SAS witnesses for Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation trial until one of them revealed the payments in the federal court, contradicting Seven’s claim last week that the former soldier’s evidence about the source of the payments was “not correct”.

When the former SAS soldier, known as Person 5, told the court last week that his solicitor and barrister are being paid for by Seven, the network said another arm of the empire owned by Seven West Media chair, Kerry Stokes, was footing the bill.

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There is ‘no one News Corp view’ on election, head of company’s Australian arm tells staff

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News Corp Australasia executive chairman issues all-staff memo, with scrutiny on election coverage likely to increase

Rupert Murdoch’s Australian lieutenant has told News Corp journalists there is “no one News Corp view” about the election and that individual editors are free to decide which party to endorse.

Executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, said it was important to remember that “electorate issues in Surry Hills differ greatly to those in Broken Hill” and that audiences “expect us to interrogate all parties and all sides”.

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Witness in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial denies he is a ‘liar and a fantasist’

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Former SAS soldier defends himself against accusations from Arthur Moses SC of trying to justify his own failures as a soldier

A former SAS soldier who testified that Ben Roberts-Smith ordered him to stage a mock execution of a comrade during a training drill has defended himself in court against accusations he was a liar and fantasist who was trying to justify his own failures as a soldier.

Roberts-Smith’s lawyers accused the former soldier, known as Person 10, of fabricating evidence out of malice against Roberts-Smith, and feelings of inadequacy about his own performance on missions in Afghanistan.

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Executive producer of 7.30, Justin Stevens, to be appointed ABC news director

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Stevens, 37, chosen for top role after lengthy recruitment process following October departure of former news head Gaven Morris

The executive producer of 7.30, Justin Stevens, has been chosen to helm ABC news, leapfrogging over the acting head, Gavin Fang, and the current affairs head, John Lyons, to land the powerful job.

Guardian Australia understands that the ABC managing director, David Anderson, will announce the appointment of Stevens as director of news, analysis and investigations on Thursday morning.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial: former soldier objects to answering questions about SAS missions

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Soldier anonymised as Person 66 objects to questions in federal court over missions under Roberts-Smith’s command on the grounds of self-incrimination

A former Australian soldier has objected to answering questions about how many SAS missions he went on under the command of Ben Roberts-Smith in Afghanistan in 2012, his lawyer telling the federal court his expected evidence could incriminate him in an alleged murder.

The soldier, anonymised before the court as Person 66, briefly began giving evidence late on Monday, subpoenaed to give evidence by the newspapers defending a defamation action brought by his former comrade and Victoria Cross recipient Roberts-Smith.

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Assistant defence minister Andrew Hastie tells court Ben Roberts-Smith was seen as a bully in SAS

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Hastie, giving evidence in defamation trial, also claims Roberts-Smith’s reported version of Afghanistan mission was an ‘alternate universe’

The assistant defence minister, former SAS officer Andrew Hastie, has told a court there was a “widespread view” within the SAS that Ben Roberts-Smith was a bully towards his comrades.

The minister told the federal court on Thursday that Roberts-Smith’s reported version of a mission they both served on in Afghanistan was an “alternate universe” to what he observed.

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Woman threatened by stranger with photos of her and Ben Roberts-Smith having sex, court told

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Woman who had affair with former SAS soldier tells defamation trial she was ‘simultaneously in love and afraid of him’

A woman who had an affair with Ben Roberts-Smith has told a court she was confronted by a stranger who showed her photos of her having sex with Roberts-Smith in a hotel room, and threatened to make them public if she didn’t confess the affair to the veteran’s wife.

The woman, anonymised before the court as Person 17, gave evidence about the torrid end of her affair with Roberts-Smith to the federal court Wednesday morning, saying she was “scared” he would “seek payback”.

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‘I was afraid of what he might do’: woman tells court Ben Roberts-Smith punched her and threatened to burn down her house

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Woman who had affair with former SAS soldier tells defamation trial he refused to take her to hospital for treatment and took naked photos of her while she slept

Ben Roberts-Smith punched a woman he was having an affair with in the face, refused to take her to hospital when she pleaded for medical help, and then took pictures of her naked while she slept, the woman has told the federal court.

In an emotional two hours in the witness box, the woman, who has been anonymised before the court as Person 17, gave evidence about a tempestuous six-month relationship she had with the former SAS soldier, which she alleges was at times threatening and violent.

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Australia internet outage: 15,000 major news and government websites affected by .au error

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Exact cause of issue which left many users unable to access sites for an hour is under investigation

More than 15,000 Australian websites, including major news sites and government department pages, were taken offline by a major outage on Tuesday.

An error in the Domain Name System, often referred to as the phonebook of the internet, blocked people reaching some .au websites, with the exact cause of the problem under investigation.

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Digital code of conduct fails to stop all harms of misinformation, Acma warns

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Need for damage to be serious and imminent before Facebook and Google take action means ‘chronic’ problems build, watchdog says – citing mistrust of vaccines

The code of conduct adopted by digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, is “too narrow” to prevent all the harms of misinformation and disinformation, Australia’s media regulator has warned.

The requirement that harm from social media posts must be both “serious” and “imminent” before tech companies take action has allowed longer term “chronic harms” including vaccine misinformation and the erosion of democracy, according to the Australian Communication and Media Authority.

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The Australian’s coverage of Zachary Rolfe verdict condemned as ‘a national disgrace’

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News Corp paper published multiple negative stories about Kumanjayi Walker and body camera footage from night he was killed

Several high-profile Indigenous journalists have condemned the Australian newspaper’s coverage as unethical, victim-blaming and insensitive following the acquittal of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in relation to the shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.

A jury acquitted Rolfe of murder and related charges on Friday over the 2019 shooting of Walker in Yuendumu. The court heard Walker was shot three times, with Rolfe arguing he acted to protect his and his partner’s safety.

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Erin Molan, Nyadol Nyuon tell inquiry defamation bill not ‘useful’ for most online trolling victims

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Problems of cost and ‘unmanageable’ volume of abuse cited as eSafety commissioner says proposed bill should be renamed

High-profile victims of online trolling, including Erin Molan and Nyadol Nyuon, have said an “anti-trolling” bill that overhauls defamation law for online comments will be “almost impossible” to uptake and not “useful” to most people in Australia due to the cost and effort involved.

The bill will make the owners of social media pages and groups not liable for user comments on those groups or pages, and would shift the liability burden to social media platforms if they do not attempt to facilitate the unmasking of anonymous commenters for someone seeking to bring defamation proceedings.

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Neighbours: the 10 best memories, from Scott and Charlene to Madge’s ghost

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With the Aussie soap finally confirmed to end, we celebrate the best moments from 37 years on Ramsay Street – including plenty of twists, weddings and a tornado

Once upon a time, Neighbours had good friends. But with producers Fremantle failing to find a new UK backer to save the Aussie soap, Neighbours is set to end in June after a groundbreaking 37-year run.

First airing on the Seven Network in 1985, it was taken over by Channel 10 just four months after launch and was transformed into water cooler fodder and a Logies award generating machine. At its peak, more than one million Australians tuned in each night to catch up on the exploits of these “typical” Aussie families living in a cul-de-sac in suburban Melbourne.

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Beloved Australian soap Neighbours to come to an end after 37 years on air

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The show where household names such as Margot Robbie and Kylie Minogue had their start will wrap for the last time in June

The Australian soap Neighbours will shoot its final scene in June following a record 37-year run, after producers Fremantle failed to secure another UK broadcaster.

The series, which launched the international careers of countless stars including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Margot Robbie and Guy Pearce, is the longest-running drama series on Australian television and was so popular in Britain it has been bankrolled by Channel 5 since 2008.

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How Australian data on Covid deaths was misinterpreted by rightwing media

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The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released data on Covid deaths. For many, the information highlights the unequal way this pandemic has affected some communities. For some radio hosts and columnists, however, it represents something different – proof lockdowns and other interventions were an “overreaction” or the result of a “scare campaign”.

Guardian Australia’s data and interactive editor Nick Evershed breaks down what the data shows, how it has been misinterpreted by rightwing media, and how this has helped feed conspiracy theories

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Piers Morgan parties with Sky News Australia mates after massive Murdoch payday | Weekly Beast

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Former Good Morning Britain host, who quit after a spectacular meltdown over Meghan Markle, strikes gold with News Corp. Plus: Hot Albo returns

Piers Morgan’s global talkshow is weeks away from launching but the British commentator was already handing out voting advice when he jetted in for Sky News Australia’s 25th anniversary party at the Sydney Opera House.

“Australians will want to elect the leader who they believe will move most swiftly to restore all freedom rights lost during the crisis, and who will be strong on national security,” Morgan said after arriving on Lachlan Murdoch’s private jet to celebrate with new colleagues including Peta Credlin, Chris Kenny and Rita Panahi.

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Goodbye Ramsay Street? Why we’re not ready for Neighbours to end

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The drama won hearts by showing the world Australian suburbia – albeit with regular light plane crashes and bouts of amnesia

When they let you through the security gate at the Neighbours studio, something magical happens. It’s not finding out the food at Harold’s is real, though it is. And it’s not realising the Erinsborough High quad is also where they filmed Prisoner, though that’s true too.

No, stepping into that Nunawading studio is a wormhole to a simpler time, where no one has a real job, drama is just drama, and the people next door have become good friends.

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