This Month
BRS emails to stay secret after Stokes agrees to cover Nine’s costs
Kerry Stokes has agreed to pay the costs of Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case, meaning a cache of emails between the billionaire, his corporate fixer and the disgraced soldier’s legal team will stay secret.
- Updated
- Max Mason
November
- Graphic Content
- Media & marketing
Higgins bristles as Lehrmann silk disputes her evidence
Brittany Higgins spent hours being interrogated over the credibility of her evidence about what happened to her in a Parliament House office in 2019.
- Updated
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Stokes, Seven lose fight to keep Roberts-Smith emails under wraps
Nine Entertainment is pursuing Australian Capital Equity and Seven for costs for the disgraced soldier’s failed defamation action.
- Max Mason
- Graphic Content
- Media & marketing
Higgins texts revealed: ‘How could he leave me there like that?’
On day six of Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins sobbed as she described her alleged rape in detail.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Higgins contacted Lehrmann twice after alleged rape, court told
The former Liberal staffer is being cross-examined in a Federal Courtroom over inconsistencies in his side, denying he sexually assaulted Brittany Higgins.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
- Opinion
- Lehrmann trial
Why judge refused Ten’s plea to take Lehrmann trial offline
Open justice has been on trial in the Lehrmann v Ten defamation case.
- Michael Pelly
Lehrmann was ‘utterly destroyed’ by Ten program, court told
After The Project aired an interview with Brittany Higgins, everyone else in a Facebook Messenger group that Bruce Lehrmann was part of suddenly left.
- Updated
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
October
Judge lashes ABC’s PR strategies
It’s all fun and games to fire off at gadfly commentators. Doing so at judges, even if only by implication, is an altogether dicier proposition.
- Myriam Robin
- Opinion
- Social media
How Elon Musk could beat his latest defamation lawsuit
The billionaire is no stranger to the courts when it comes to comments he’s made on social media.
- Stephen Carter
September
Cleared of rape, a university student sues for defamation
A woman’s allegation led to the expulsion from Yale of Saifullah Khan, who is seeking $170 million through a lawsuit that could end her anonymity.
- Vimal Patel
August
Brittany Higgins sued by former minister over social media posts
The writ in the WA Supreme Court is the latest manoeuvre in a bitter fallout between Brittany Higgins and her former employer Senator Linda Reynolds.
- Ronald Mizen
July
ABC accused of ‘abuse of power’ in ex-commando’s defamation trial
Former Australian Army commando Heston Russell is suing the ABC for suggesting he was involved in the killing of an Afghan prisoner in 2012.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Defamation runs in the Roberts-Smith family
In 2013, Ben’s mother Sue Roberts-Smith launched defamation action against a colleague at Perth’s Swan Valley Anglican Community School.
- Joe Aston
Ben Roberts-Smith appeals major defamation loss
The Victoria Cross winner has lodged a notice of appeal after Justice Anthony Besanko found Roberts-Smith broke the rules of war and disgraced his country.
- Max Mason
High profile #MeToo client rides to the defence of embattled top silk
As defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou faces a reprimand from the NSW Bar Council, a former client and lawyer has rushed to her defence.
- Samantha Hutchinson
Bar Council spruiks top silk, as it ponders reprimanding her
The NSW Legal Services Commission is weighing up a recommendation to reprimand barrister Sue Chrysanthou after she represented former attorney-general Christian Porter.
- Samantha Hutchinson
June
Papers chase Roberts-Smith for $10m
The conduct of war hero Ben-Roberts Smith during the defamation “trial of the century” could prove costly.
- Michael Pelly
- Analysis
- Roberts-Smith case
Judge condemns cowardice in the courtroom
The full judgment in the Ben Roberts-Smith case is a damning indictment of the war hero.
- Michael Pelly
Judge rules Ben Roberts-Smith ‘not an honest and reliable witness’
While polite in the box giving evidence, Australia’s most decorated soldier was ultimately a liar, a Federal Court judge ruled.
- Max Mason
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Holding heroes to account bolsters our democracy
Dogged journalists and courageous soldier-witnesses made sure that even a Victoria Cross could not stop the truth of a flawed hero coming out.
- The AFR View
