Macquarie Radio Network Pty Ltd v Arthur Dent [2007] NSWCA 261

Appeal Outcome: Special leave refused with costs by the High Court - 13 June 2008

New South Wales Court of Appeal

CITATION: Macquarie Radio Network Pty Ltd v Arthur Dent [2007] NSWCA 261

HEARING DATE(S): 1 March 2007

JUDGMENT DATE: 27 September 2007

JUDGMENT OF: Mason P at 1; Beazley JA at 2; Basten JA at 115

DECISION: The appeal is dismissed with costs.

CATCHWORDS: DEFAMATION – protected report – report of court proceedings in newspaper article – report inaccurate – newspaper article subsequently discussed on talkback radio – defamatory imputations contained in radio host's broadcast – whether comments of radio host a fair summary of the protected report for purposes of s 24(3) of the Defamation Act 1974 (NSW) – whether ordinary reasonable listener could differentiate between comments of radio host and content of Herald article - DEFAMATION – report of court proceedings in newspaper article – newspaper article subsequently discussed on talkback radio – defamatory imputations contained in radio host's broadcast – broadcast material was partly proper material for comment under s 30 of the Defamation Act to the extent it included the content of the protected report – whether imputations represented opinions which might reasonably be held

Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) s 56 Defamation Act 1974 (NSW) ss 7A, 7A(4), 24, 24(1), 24(2), 24(3), 24(4), 29(1), 30, 30(3)(b), 31, 33, 34, Sch 2 cl 2(5) LEGISLATION CITED: Social Security Act 1991 (Cth), s 94(1) Suitors' Fund Act 1951 (NSW) Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW) s 75A

Anderson v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (1970) 72 SR (NSW) 313 Arthur Dent v Macquarie Radio Network Pty Ltd [2006] NSWSC 186 Burchett v Kane [1980] 2 NSWLR 266 Carleton v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2002) 172 FLR 398; [2002] ACTSC 127 Hunt v The Star Newspaper Co-Ltd [1908] 2 KB 309 John Fairfax Publications Pty Ltd v O'Shane [2005] NSWCA 164 Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Christopher Michael Rogers [2002] NSWCA 71 Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Sleeman [2005] NSWCA 349 CASES CITED: New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council v Perkins (1998) 45 NSWLR 340 Rogers v Nationwide News Pty Limited (2003) 216 CLR 327; [2003] HCA 52 Sutherland v ACP Publishing Pty Limited [2000] NSWSC 1139 Thom v Associated Newspapers Ltd (1964) 64 SR (NSW) 376 Thompson v Truth and Sportsman Limited (1934) 34 SR (NSW) 21 Warren v Coombes (1979) 142 CLR 531; [1979] HCA 9 Waterhouse v Broadcasting Station 2GB Pty Limited (1985) 1 NSWLR 58 Report of the Law Reform Commission (New South Wales) on Defamation (LRC 11 1971) The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary 2nd edition (1995) Melbourne, Oxford University Press