Keating v Newcastle Newspapers P/L [2000] NSWSC 726

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Keating v Newcastle Newspapers P/L [2000] NSWSC 726 CURRENT JURISDICTION: Common Law Division FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 20135/00 HEARING DATE(S) : 21/07/00 JUDGMENT DATE : 1 August 2000

PARTIES : Anthony Keating (Pl) Newcastle Newspapers Pty Ltd (Def) JUDGMENT OF : Kirby J

COUNSEL : R K Weaver (Pl) D Caspersonn (Def) SOLICITORS : J A O'Brien & Co (Pl) Sparke Helmore (Def) CATCHWORDS : Defamation - Application by deft to "strike in" material - Newspaper editorial commenting on allegations LEGISLATION CITED : Defamation Act, 1974 - s7A Ron Hodgson (Trading) P/L v Belvedere Motors (Hurstville) P/L & Ors (1971) 1 NSWLR 472 CASES CITED : Gordon v Amalgamated Television Services P/L & Anor (1980) 2 NSWLR 410 Murphy v Nationwide News (Levine J, unreported, 1 April 1993) DECISION : Ref para 26

THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION

KIRBY J

Tuesday 1 August 2000

20135/00 - ANTHONY KEATING v NEWCASTLE NEWSPAPERS PTY LIMITED

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: This is an application by the defendant to "strike in" certain material which accompanied the publication of the matter complained of. 2 Anthony Keating (the plaintiff) was endorsed by the ALP as its mayoral candidate at Maitland in the Local Government elections to be held on 11 September 1999. He was a school teacher from Maitland High School. The day before the election an article was published in the Newcastle Herald. It appeared on the front page, under the following headline: "Hunter mayoral candidate defends himself over Schoolgirl sex harass claims " 3 The headline was given great prominence. It occupies perhaps one third of the front page. The article which followed began with these words: "Maitland mayoral candidate Tony Keating has defended himself against NSW Opposition allegations in Parliament yesterday that identified him as a Lower Hunter teacher and mayoral candidate accused of sexually harassing female students. Opposition Upper House Liberal MP Charlie Lynn questioned the Government as to whether an official investigation was being delayed because of the local government elections. Using parliamentary privilege, Mr Lynn said the teacher still had access to female students while the parents of alleged victims had endured a delay in an investigation without proper explanation." 4 The remainder of the article was concerned with the questions asked in parliament by Mr Lynn, and the response of the Minister representing the Minister for Education in the Legislative Council. 5 There was, on one side of the article, a small box. The box contained the following: The Newcastle HERALD