Breaking: The ABC will seek to rely in part on a new public interest defence to fight a defamation suit brought against it by former federal Liberal political staffer Bruce Lehrmann over a National Press Club address by Brittany Higgins.
He is suing the ABC for broadcasting the Press Club address by Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins on February 9 last year, and publishing a related YouTube video. If it proceeds to trial, the case will test the defences available for live broadcasts., the ABC denies it defamed Lehrmann. In the event the court finds it did so, it will seek to rely on a series of defences, including public interest and innocent dissemination.
“The parliament of Australia is safe – it is secure – except if you’re a woman. If what happened to me can happen there, it can happen anywhere. And it does. It happens to women everywhere.” In its written defence, the ABC does not admit the broadcasts identified Lehrmann and denies they conveyed the defamatory meaning alleged by his lawyers.
That defence relates to publications concerning “an issue of public interest” where the defendant “reasonably believed that the publication of the matter was in the public interest”. He alleges the interviews conveyed a series of defamatory meanings, including that he raped Higgins in then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds’ office in 2019.
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