The ABC has spent more than $700,000 settling the various defamation lawsuits brought against it over the past three years, according to documents handed over to the Senate.
The settlement figures were revealed last week in response to a throng of questions taken on notice by the ABC during Senate estimates hearings in May, and were limited to reporting periods that saw the broadcaster involved in three or more defamation settlements, reaching back to the 2019-20 financial year.
In that year, the ABC settled fewer than three cases and wasn’t required to report, as the question taken on notice from Senator Ross Cadell asked the broadcaster to provide costs of litigation and settlement for years with more than three legal cases. The following financial year, 2020-21, the ABC spent $339,450 settling suits brought against it, as well as a further $871,088 on litigating those cases in court, from inception until settlement.
For the 2021-22 financial year, total defamation settlement costs were $414,000, with external costs of $315,626. The ABC’s external costs for these two financial years included all external legal fees tallied, including from previous financial years, the documents read.
The ABC’s total defamation costs are likely to far exceed those reported to the Senate last week, given the question’s limited scope and the broadcaster’s reported legal costs for overlapping periods.
The ABC did not respond to a request for comment.
Questions about the ABC’s total legal costs for the same period went unanswered. In December 2021, the broadcaster disclosed to the Senate that its legal bills had soared through the 2020-21 financial year to $2.59 million as it fended off two high-profile defamation suits.
One of the cases involved former attorney-general Christian Porter, who sued the ABC in March 2021 over an article that included rape allegations made against him (though he was not named in the report). Another case involved Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan, whose $200,000 legal bill was covered by the broadcaster after former Liberal MP Andrew Laming launched a suit against her for a tweet that accused him of “upskirting” a woman.
The ABC currently finds itself a party to at least four defamation proceedings, a separate question returned to the Senate on notice revealed.
The cases include the ongoing action brought by former commando Heston Russell, who launched defamation proceedings against the ABC in November 2021 over a TV broadcast and an online story he claimed defamed him by way of linking him to alleged war crimes.
The ABC is also being sued by the former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann, whose lawyers said in June that the decision to air a live National Press Club address by Brittany Higgins in February last year was “recklessly indifferent, negligent and wilfully blind” to the possibility that Higgins would repeat “defamatory” claims against Lehrmann.
Common thread on all these defamation cases? LNP males…
Clearly the outcome will be an increasing timidity to tell the big stories. Our defamation laws need overhauling. Truth must be told.
You wouldn’t say that if a journalist wrote something about you that wasn’t true though chief.
Not sure what the point of this article is? I am sure the Crikey audience is well aware of the multitude of expensive high profile defamation cases being brought against the ABC. An exploration on the broader why, purpose and validity of those cases would have been more interesting…
I can’t see the point either. If the ABC is not spending a bit of its budget on defending defamation suits it’s not pushing hard enough.
Other places they now have anti-SLAPP laws inc. US, UK & EU:
‘Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are a form of legal harassment used to intimidate and silence those speaking out in the public interest.’
Thanks Drew, that makes sense of instances of high net worth individuals offering to pay for the eye-watering cost of defamation litigation.
The ABC has to cop the cost of being “SLAPPed” with defamation suits to do its job of being a bulwark of our democracy. $700k over three years is peanuts. However, all ABC journalists including Louise Milligan, need to be seen as independent. They should refrain from using social media unless it’s essential to their work.
Yeah, it was half an article.
Libel litigation is just part of the price of any sort of reasonable coverage of of what is happening in our world.
Up to a point… But if our libel laws favour the powerful, not only does the ABC have to cough up a lot extra, the courts will often unfairly side with the inevitable LNP male, and smaller media outlets will be chilled into silence.
Just another feature of the neofuedalism which neoliberalism is bringing on. Remember to respect your betters…
Probably the cost of necessary public exposure of the grifters who aggressively respond to any slight by going for defamation. How could you defame Porter for instance? And I have yet to see a single word anywhere about protected species Lehrmann’s role in the “two to tango” affair with Higgins. Even our ABC doesn’t seem game to tackle that one, while News Ltd just keeps on effectively defaming Higgins . .. Please ADC, keep on exposing what corruption you see in our society
The protected species is St Brittany and the Monstrous Regiment of MeThree – enabled and promulgated by the those in the bunker.
Dude, in order to quote Sir Terry Pratchett on any level, you need to read the book/s. Your comment is both wrong and offensive.
Polly Oliver would give you a “look”, and possibly a black eye (not that I advocate violence, but that book is specifically about women’s contribution in times of war, ie, bringing a stupid, pointless war to a timely closure). Granny would hex you (although she didn’t appear in that book) and Angus would likely call you “lunch”…
Angua. Angus is nowhere to be seen in any STP books, Young or otherwise. Damn you autocorrect!
It was a reference to John Knox’s polemic, written 450yrs before SirT’s homage, using the original spelling ‘Monstruous‘ but auto-correct struck without my noticing before posting.
BTW, I’m no dude.