Extract from The Guardian
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
David Anderson tells Senate estimates defamation action will be defended vigorously and Louise Milligan’s reporting was in the public interest
First published on Tue 23 Mar 2021 14.58 AEDT
The ABC managing director, David Anderson, has mounted a strong defence of Louise Milligan’s reporting on Christian Porter, saying her journalism was in the public interest and of the “highest quality”.
Last week the attorney general commenced defamation proceedings against the ABC and the investigative journalist in the federal court to counter “false allegations against him in relation to a person who he met when he was a teenager”.
Anderson said the defamation action would be defended vigorously and would prove the ABC acted properly and fairly at all times.
“We will defend the case and our reporting which we believe is in the public interest,” Anderson told Senate estimates in an opening statement.
He said he would not be able to answer specific questions about the stories “Inside the Canberra Bubble” and online about Porter because of the legal action.
Anderson rejected criticism published in the Australian newspaper that Milligan had selectively quoted from the material produced by the alleged victim, who is now deceased.
In a piece highly critical of the ABC, the paper’s legal affairs correspondent, Chris Merritt, said he hoped the trial would “expose Milligan and her supervisors to the scrutiny they deserve”.
“Was it ever really wise to run a campaign against the Attorney-General based on 30-year-old rape claims left by a woman with long-term mental health issues who took her own life and whose own parents were apparently concerned she might have made them up?” Merritt wrote last week.
The managing director said the ABC chose not to report certain aspects of the document to minimise the distress to her bereaved family, as editorial standards require.
The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen and Peter van Onselen did publish the more salacious parts of the woman’s letter, which have never appeared on any ABC platform.
“The ABC chose never to identify her,” he said. “No unpixellated image has been used; her voice has not been heard. Her story has been told through her friends who cared deeply about her.
“Many of the details of her account of the alleged rape have not been reported on ABC platforms. As editorial standards require, the ABC sought to minimise the distress to her bereaved family.”
Anderson said Porter’s statement of claim includes alleged aggravated damages particulars that echo “those kinds of allegations” published by the Australian.
“The ABC has acted in accordance with its statutory obligations of impartiality and its charter in its reporting, which has always reflected that Porter is entitled to a presumption of innocence.”
Anderson said the ABC broke the story about a letter concerning the historical rape allegation sent to senior federal politicians with an online piece on 26 February without naming the cabinet minister.
“No reputable media organisation could have ignored the existence of the letter or the fact that politicians on both sides of the despatch box had referred it to police,” he said.
“Forty-eight hours passed before the prime minister publicly defended the unnamed minister and two days later the attorney general revealed the allegation was about him.”
The ABC has secured the former solicitor general, Justin Gleeson SC, to lead its defence.
According to his statement of claim, lodged with the federal court, Porter argues that the online article contained a number of defamatory imputations including that he raped a 16-year-old girl in 1988 when he was 17 and that he is “reasonably suspected” by New South Wales police of having done so.
The attorney general also argues the article suggested the alleged rape “contributed to her taking her own life”.
Legal experts predict the ABC’s principal defences in the case will be justification and proof of substantial truth.
The attorney general has engaged the services of top Sydney silk Bret Walker SC to lead the legal action.
As well as Gleeson, the ABC’s legal team includes Victorian barrister Renée Enbom QC, who has represented high-profile plaintiffs including Rebel Wilson and Daniel Johns, and the Sydney barrister Clarissa Amato, who has acted for a number of Australian publishers.
Anderson told the committee that Four Corners had not been re-edited as a result of complaints from the government.
In December communications minister Paul Fletcher asked ABC chair Ita Buttrose if the Four Corners program which alleged inappropriate conduct by two ministers met the standards of accurate and impartial journalism. Anderson was also grilled at senate estimates ahead of the broadcast.
The committee heard that Porter and frontbencher Alan Tudge, who both featured in the program, had been consulted about the letter, as had the prime minister.
Anderson refused to comment on legal advice the ABC was given ahead of the broadcast of the Inside the Canberra Bubble program last year or the follow up program Bursting the Canberra Bubble earlier this month.
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