Sam and Brittany Groth settle legal battle against Herald Sun
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Under the tort of serious invasion of privacy, a person may bring a lawsuit against individuals and organizations for physically intruding into their private space or misusing information about them, where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The law includes a defense that the content produced by journalists adhering to professional standards must be “in the nature of news, current events or documentary”.
If tested, the case could have implications for all media outlets in terms of outlining what constitutes newsworthy content under this defence.
lawyers messenger of the sun He had previously argued that the details of the Groths’ relationship had already been made public in an earlier interview with the couple, who stated that the stories were not “idle gossip” and that they met at a tennis club.
They also argued that allegations about Groth’s affair were weaponized internally by members of the province’s Liberal Party.
The Groths’ lawyer, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, told the Federal Court hearing this month that the articles did not constitute “newspaper material” because they were not a “factual presentation of information”.
“The news is not fantasy,” he said at the time.
Chrysanthou also stated that the newspaper did not want to defend the truth in the defamation case, but would instead apply the public interest defense.
To be able to rely on this defense messenger of the sun It should have found that there was a public interest in publishing the stories about Groth and his wife and that the newspaper had acted reasonably in doing so.
At the hearing, Judge Shaun McElwaine said it would be an “extraordinary outcome” for malicious, false, completely fictional articles to constitute news and for parliament to “not really pay attention” when drafting the legislation.
“I think we can all agree that it’s not simple,” he said.
messenger of the sun editor Weir had previously defended the stories, saying: “We stand by our reporting on a matter of public interest, covering important issues that could have a major impact on Victorian politics ahead of the election.”
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