Category Archives: Australian media

Herald Sun failed to seek response from Victorian MP Sam Groth and wife before article that invaded privacy, court documents claim

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Groth and wife Brittany are suing a News Corp paper for defamation and breach of privacy over incorrect claims of inappropriate relationship

The Herald Sun failed to seek a response from Brittany Groth, the wife of Sam Groth, the Victorian Liberals deputy leader and former tennis star, before wrongly outing her as a victim of child sexual assault who was preyed upon by her now-husband when he was her coach, the couple allege in federal court documents.

The Herald and Weekly Times, along with reporter Stephen Drill, who wrote the articles, and his editor Sam Weir, are being sued in the federal court by Brittany Groth, in the first test of a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, and by Sam Groth for defamation.

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Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson to learn fate at sentence hearing in Victorian supreme court

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Justice Christopher Beale will sentence the triple murderer on Monday, with the hearing to be broadcast live in a state first

Victoria’s supreme court will hand down the triple-murderer Erin Patterson’s sentence on Monday morning, with the hearing to be broadcast live in a historic first for the state.

The state’s supreme court will allow a television camera inside the courtroom to broadcast the sentencing hearing – with a 10 second delay – for the first time.

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Bob Katter distances himself from neo-Nazi group associated with megaphone at anti-immigration protest

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Separately, Greens call on Queensland MP to ‘apologise or resign’ for verbal altercation with Channel Nine reporter last week

The federal MP Bob Katter has distanced himself from a neo-Nazi group that claimed ownership of a megaphone he used at a Townsville rally against mass immigration, with the veteran politician claiming he has been the victim of “bullying” in the media.

The Greens have separately called on Katter, the member for Kennedy, to “apologise or resign” over his verbal altercation with a Channel Nine reporter last week, asking the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission to investigate his conduct.

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Brittany Higgins ordered to pay almost $350,000 in defamation damages to Linda Reynolds

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Former defence minister’s reputation was damaged by social media posts by her former staffer, judge rules

Linda Reynolds has won her defamation case against Brittany Higgins in the Western Australian supreme court, marking the end of a protracted legal battle with her former staffer.

The state supreme court judge Paul Tottle ruled on Wednesday that the former defence minister’s reputation was damaged by social media posts published by Higgins in July 2023.

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ABC defence correspondent Andrew Greene quits after failure to disclose junket

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Resignation comes after Media Watch revealed a German defence company bidding for an Australian contract paid for him to visit its shipyards

A senior journalist at the ABC has tendered his resignation two months after the public broadcaster’s Media Watch program raised potential conflict-of-interest concerns over a press junket.

Andrew Greene has been defence correspondent for the past 10 years since joining the ABC in 2010.

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Guardian Australia wins Kennedy awards for outstanding digital innovation, photography and columnist

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Leaving Gaza interactive, a portrait by Carly Earl, and columnist Ranjana Srivastava claim media accolades

Guardian Australia has won three Kennedy awards for outstanding digital innovation, outstanding portrait photography and outstanding columnist at an industry event in Sydney.

The Leaving Gaza interactive, which showcased text messages exchanged between Palestinian friends – one in Gaza, one in the US – in the opening days of the Israel-Gaza war, won the innovation category.

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Bruce Lehrmann loses bid for interim restraining order against Daily Mail reporter he alleges stalked him

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Former Liberal staffer’s lawyer Zali Burrows told the court Karleigh Smith and a photographer followed her client in a car

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has lost an application for an interim restraining order against a Daily Mail journalist he alleges stalked him.

Lehrmann has launched legal action in the Hobart magistrates court against Karleigh Smith, a senior reporter at the Mail who is based in New South Wales.

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Mushroom trial spores toxic media hot takes after Erin Patterson’s guilty verdict | Weekly Beast

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Coverage ranges from psychedelic gifs to ‘full-on Walking Dead-style zombie stuff’. Plus: is the ABC really listening?

The media were constrained in what they could report during Erin Patterson’s 10-week trial. But after the mushroom trial guilty verdict was handed down on Monday, all bets were off.

The extraordinary photographs of the triple murderer in a prison van in May were published by every media outlet, bought from the wire agency AFP for more than $1,500 each or a discounted rate for the set of six.

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‘Fungi fatale’ and ‘death cap stare’: how the world’s media reported Erin Patterson’s guilty verdict

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For more than two months, the Australian mushroom triple-murder trial has gripped the world – here’s how it finished up on the front page

The murder trial has spawned podcasts, documentaries, thousands of column inches, viral social media posts – and a rapt global audience.

After a week of deliberation, a supreme court jury found Victorian woman Erin Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder after three guests died and one almost died after eating her homemade beef wellington lunch.

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ABC investigates defence correspondent for allegedly not disclosing trip paid for by German shipbuilder

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Andrew Greene, who has worked for the public broadcaster for more than 10 years, filed a story from Germany about business booming at naval shipyards

The ABC is investigating “serious allegations” that its defence correspondent Andrew Greene filed a story about a German shipbuilder without disclosing that he had traveled to Germany courtesy of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, which is hoping to win Australian navy contracts.

Media Watch revealed that Greene filed a story last week for ABC radio’s The World Today about how business is booming at German shipyards. The report, which has since been taken down, allegedly failed to disclose that the journalist had been a guest of the defence company.

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ABC confirms Q+A to be axed amid wider changes including about 40 redundancies

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Political and current affairs discussion program being cut alongside the ABC’s Innovation Lab

The ABC’s Q+A program has been cancelled after 18 years, the broadcaster has confirmed, and another major restructure of screen, digital and audio content will result in scores of redundancies across the public broadcaster.

The savings from staff cuts will be “reinvested directly into more content and services for audiences”, the managing director, Hugh Marks, has told staff.

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ABC expected to axe Q+A in fresh round of cuts

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Managing director Hugh Marks to unveil changes at public broadcaster on Wednesday

The ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, is expected to unveil his first tranche of changes at the public broadcaster on Wednesday morning, including a new round of redundancies and the axing of Q+A after 18 years.

The weekly flagship discussion program was launched in 2007 by executive producer Peter McEvoy and host Tony Jones and was highly influential in its early years.

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Albanese says footage of Nine journalist Lauren Tomasi being shot by LA police with rubber bullet is ‘horrific’

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The PM says he has expressed his concern to the US government over the incident that occurred during protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles

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Anthony Albanese says footage of the Nine correspondent Lauren Tomasi being shot by a rubber bullet live on air is “horrific” and he has expressed his concern to the US government.

Tomasi was shot while reporting on protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, with the incident caught live on camera. Footage showed an officer taking aim in the direction of Tomasi and her camera operator and then firing.

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Australian reporter shot with rubber bullet while covering anti-Ice protests in Los Angeles

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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement declaring that ‘all journalists should be able to do their work safely’

An Australian reporter has been shot with a rubber bullet while reporting on protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, with the incident caught live on camera.

US authorities, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and national guard troops, clashed with demonstrators on Sunday. They were protesting against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

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Channel Ten cancels The Project after 16 years with new current affairs show to fill primetime slot

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Groundbreaking commercial news and entertainment program to air final time on 27 June

Channel Ten’s The Project, a groundbreaking news and entertainment program which made a success of “news done differently” in prime time has been cancelled by the network after 16 years and 4,500 episodes.

It will air for the last time on Friday 27 June and will be replaced by a new national one-hour 6pm news, current affairs and analysis show after Channel Ten’s local 5pm news bulletin.

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SBS’s Insight accused of betraying people living with chronic fatigue syndrome who appeared on program

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Broadcaster receives hundreds of negative comments including claims it presented a potentially harmful and unscientific narrative

People living with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome who appeared on SBS’s Insight program have accused the broadcaster of betraying them in the final cut, which presented what they claim is a potentially harmful and unscientific narrative and favoured a person who said she had “cured herself” by “listening to her body”.

The SBS ombudsman is investigating their individual complaints, as well as one from Emerge Australia, the national advocacy body for patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

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ABC doing ‘all the heavy lifting’ as commercial networks abandon local kids’ TV drama

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Just $1.75m spent on genre across free-to-air networks as advocates warn of ‘broader erosion’ of cultural investment

Australian commercial television networks have all but given up on creating local children’s drama, advocates say, with just $1.75m spent on the genre across all commercial free-to-air networks in 2023-24.

But that’s $1.75m more than the previous year, according to the latest report card by the communications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma).

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New Australian free-to-air TV rules could allow alcohol ads from 10am, even on weekends and school holidays

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Media authority mulls Free TV Australia’s proposed revised code of practice to expand daytime hours when M programming is permitted

Free-to-air broadcasters want classification rules changed to allow an additional 800 hours of alcohol ads every year despite one in three children already being exposed to liquor commercials on television.

Despite laws banning alcohol marketing during children’s viewing hours, broadcasters have a “sports loophole” in their code of practice, which permits the airing of alcohol ads during televised sporting events.

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Australia news live: Erin Patterson’s daughter says her mother was a ‘very good cook’; PM’s department boss quits

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Erin Patterson’s daughter’s pre-recorded video evidence is being played to the jury in Patterson’s triple murder trial. Follow today’s news live

‘I want to harness all the talent in my team’

“We do need to reflect a modern Liberal party,” Sussan Ley says. She is speaking on Sunrise before the Liberals’ party room meeting on Tuesday, when they will select a new leader:

It’s about making sure that I am listening to my colleagues and … demonstrate to them we want a strong approach that includes everyone. I want to harness all of the talent in my team, take it forward under my leadership and meet the Australian people where they are because, clearly we didn’t do that at the last election. But we do need to reflect a modern Liberal party, meeting modern Australians in every single walk of life across the country.

On the weekend, we suffered a significant election defeat and since then, I have been having many conversations with my colleagues, members of the community, with members of the party, indeed the Coalition, with everyday Australians. I have listened. We got it wrong. We need to do things differently, going forward, and we do need a fresh approach. So, on Tuesday morning when the Liberal party room meets in Canberra, I will be putting myself forward for the position of leader of the federal party.

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Nine journalist Nick McKenzie allegedly told of Ben Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife’s planned legal action

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Roberts-Smith argues his unsuccessful defamation case against McKenzie and Nine newspapers should be retried because of a ‘miscarriage of justice’

The Nine journalist Nick McKenzie was told about a legal action Ben Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife planned to take against the war veteran ahead of his defamation trial, a court has heard, with the informant allegedly telling him “it’s always good to be on the front foot”.

On Tuesday the federal court of Australia heard that a friend of Emma Roberts had told McKenzie that Roberts-Smith was planning to notify and write to the Commonwealth director of public prosecutions (CDPP) about an alleged “breach” and to “restrain any further publications being made”.

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This article was amended on 2 May 2025. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Nick McKenzie was told Emma Roberts planned to contact the CDPP. McKenzie was told that Ben Roberts-Smith planned to do this.

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