Daily Telegraph denounces sexual harassment, calls for law reform after court’s Geoffrey Rush decision
The Daily Telegraph has said losing its appeal in the Geoffrey Rush defamation case “exposes the inadequacies of Australia’s defamation laws” and condemned sexual harassment in workplaces.
This morning, the Federal Court dismissed every one of the newspaper’s grounds of appeal, and stood by a decision to award Rush $2.87m in damages – the highest defamation payout to a single person in Australian history.
Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Ben English, said the paper’s reporting was based on a public statement from the Sydney Theatre Company, which said an actor had made a complaint against Rush, who played King Lear in a 2015-16 production.
The opening sentence says much about the aggrieved party.
We live in a society that cherishes due process, but when it plays against us we often frown on it and carp. As for the second part of the first sentence, this is a kind of virtue signalling, a statement of the obvious, of course, they condemn sexual harassment in the workplace, surely they would condemn sexual harassment in any place.
It is my opinion that if a legal system is to have any kind of fairness, there must be an examination of the alleged facts on both sides before a public statement is made against any of the parties involved.
I think the editor and publisher need to appreciate, the court is there to protect everyone. Not just those News Corp feels it needs to target.
Trail by media is not the way Australia operates.
Unlike the awful mess Murdoch has created for its US publications and broadcasters.
If Ben English and Murdoch Media what to continue operating in this country, they need to abide by Australian rules.
Not change them to suit their bottom lines.
And never mind the victim !!