Press Council chair David Weisbrot calls for law reform in wake of Hockey defamation case
APC chairman Weisbrot
The chair of the Australian Press Council David Weisbrot has spoken out in the wake of treasurer Joe Hockey defamation win against publisher Fairfax Media, calling for law reform in the area as a “high priority”.
In a statement issued this afternoon Weisbrot said: “If we are serious about free speech and freedom of the press in Australia, then we must tackle defamation law reform as a high priority.
“The current law seriously inhibits investigative reporting and robust political debate and, make no mistake, politicians of all stripes are heavy users of defamation writs.”
If the media want greater free speech and freedom of press, then racial vilification must be removed from the Racial Discrimination Act . You can’t have it both ways.
Spot on “Reader”. And how interesting that when the luvvie-Left media cop a black eye and a judicial and financial bollocking, suddenly there’s a need for “law reform”, but when the boot’s on the other foot, law reform isn’t mentioned.
It would be interesting Mike is you could define who is the “luvvie-Left media” you are writing about. Especially as there is very little luvvie-Left media in Australia. Are to aiming this comment at the Green Left Weekly? Hardly a big player.
Only Fairfax and ABC, Lindsay. Just those couple of small ones.
Wonder if Weisbrot would be coming forward so quickly and strongly if either:
a) It was a case against NewsCorp
b) If anyone from the Labor or Greens won a similar case.
We know the answer is ‘no’.
Robbo, if you think Fairfax and the ABC are left wing then you must be viewing politics from a very long way from the right.
Fairfax isn’t left-wing. Fairfax sits on a fence and picks sides when it chooses, to sell a story. ABC however is definitely left of the spectrum.
Sorry Viewer, but there have been many investigations in the the so called ‘left bias’ at the ABC. The same result every time. There is no left bias. What there is, is an ongoing effort the present a balance of views. This involves more than one point of view being given time. That is not and never has been a ‘left bias’. However this requirement does get up the nose of many from the right. Especially when they see their views being held to account. This sort of thing does not happen on News Corp. publications or at Fairfax.
Of course the SMH and ABC are luvvie-left media.
I was discussing this over dinner just the other night with some friends and Adolf, Benito, Kim Jong, Francisco, Pol, Augusto .. they ALL agreed,
If the press council actually were effective in dealing with defamation there would be no need for lawyers but when you have exhausted all other avenues and the publication will not correct comments then a defamation case is the only option and then the publisher has only themselves to blame for not righting the wrong which can sometimes do a lot more damage than just bruised feelings.
Britain has reformed the defamation law. Why not Australia. We either protect freedom of expression or we allow anybody with a fat wallet to scare the media away from its watchdog function through defamation suits.