Word is you might be the most sued person in Australia?
Possibly one of the most threatened, averaging 4 a year – a coveted mantle!
Defamation, right?
Mostly defamation, and a sprinkle of ‘injurious falsehood’ claims as well as a claim for intellectual property theft last year. The bloke behind that was a colourful British entrepreneur who has since gone bankrupt. The aim is to muzzle a story, using lawyers to bully you with the spectre of massive court costs.
But you sort most of it out before it gets to court?
Yeah, the usual tactic is a highly indignant letter demanding we take a story down, apologise in words of their choosing, pay the costs of them threatening us, or else. They know most people can’t cop the risk of losing a $2million lawsuit, or more. The Ben Roberts-Smith’s case cost $35million. We usually ring the lawyers straight up. They are uncomfortable about having a human on the other end of the phone. We try to address their client’s concerns, offer to take down or amend anything they can establish is wrong, or even unfair.
But this latest one…it hasn’t worked?
These guys, a Canberra law firm called MV Law, refused to take phone calls or return email offers to address the concerns. They had us served at home instead by a private investigator. It’s aggressive. So, we have just got back from the first hearing at the Federal Court of Australia.
Who’s behind this one?
A guy called Geoff Wade, a researcher in the Parliamentary Library. He claims we defamed him, but we say the story is true. He is a prolific social media poster who tweets about Chinese spies in Australia; he’s a political campaigner and China hawk. He reckons our coverage has stopped him getting academic positions at places like Princeton University so is claiming aggravated damages.
That seems somewhat of an overreach, yeah?
We hold no grudge against Geoff. There are a million miffed people out there wanting to have a crack at the media, or anybody, for some slight or other. It’s the lawyers, who are officers of the Court, who we tend to focus on. We think a lot of it is just vexatious, using the court for commercial ends.
You’ve just had a successful crowdfunding though? You’ve got a live one this time?
Yes, indeed, we raised $40k within 24 hours on the Chuffed crowdfunding platform. It won’t get us through a court case. Lawyers aren’t cheap but it helps us to run the business, pay journos and producers and legal fees for a couple of months. We can always go again if they don’t walk away.
It’s a game of chicken, who blinks first?
We can’t afford to take down stories we believe are correct and in the public interest. We’d be knocked over the rush of threats from Learned Friends of the ambulance chasing profession.
How about legal reform?
What do the politicians say about it? The problem is the mainstream media have the resources, in-house legal teams, large balance sheets, government subsidies. So, there is no political appetite to do much about it. No votes in it. We – independent media – are sitting ducks. We have our ten-year anniversary this year and have not made a payout yet in a legal settlement, but we have spent countless hours fighting these guys to survive.