Taylor v Nationwide News Pty Limited (No 2) [2022] FCA 149

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Taylor v Nationwide News Pty Limited (No 2) [2022] FCA 149 File number: NSD 1507 of 2019

Judgment of: KATZMANN J

Date of judgment: 28 February 2022

Catchwords: DEFAMATION — lengthy feature article in tabloid newspaper about notorious family some members of which, including the applicant, had been arrested and charged with serious criminal offences but where the applicant had been reported as having been "cleared" — where article based on evidence collected by police investigation, including telephone intercepts, tendered in court but where presentation of information sensationalised and voyeuristic, whether article conveyed alleged defamatory imputations that the applicant was a criminal involved in organised crime, a member of the mafia and/or a gangster — bane and antidote — if the references to the arrest gave that impression, whether references to the fact that the applicant had been "cleared" taken in context were sufficient to overcome it

Cases cited: Chalmers v Payne (1835) 2 Cr M & R 56 Corby v Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 227 Favell v Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd [2005] HCA 52; 79 ALJR 1716; 221 ALR 186 Fox v Boulter [2013] EWHC 1435 (QB) John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited v Rivkin [2003] HCA 50; 77 ALJR 1657; 201 ALR 77 Lewis v Daily Telegraph Ltd [1964] AC 234 Molan v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 800 Rush v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 7) [2019] FCA 496 Macquarie Dictionary (online) (viewed 3 February 2022) Oxford English Dictionary (online) (viewed 3 February 2022)