Mohammed v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2016] NSWSC 1365

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Mohammed v Nationwide News Pty Ltd (No 2) [2016] NSWSC 1365 Hearing dates: 15 September 2016 Decision date: 16 September 2016 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: McCallum J Decision: Parties to provide agreed short minutes reflecting these rulings by close of business on 22 September 2016. Catchwords: DEFAMATION – defences – defence of contextual truth – application to have contextual imputations struck out as being incapable of being conveyed – care to be exercised before striking out imputations – application to have particulars of truth struck out as being incapable of proving truth of imputations – consideration of proper approach – whether court has authority to strike out relevant particulars on the grounds of proportionality Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005, s 60 Defamation Act 2005 (NSW), s 25 Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, r 14.28, r 15.22 Cases Cited: Abou-Lokmeh v Harbour Radio Pty Ltd [2016] NSWCA 228 Agar v Hyde (2000) 201 CLR 552; [2000] HCA 41 Cornwell v Channel Seven Sydney Pty Ltd [2016] NSWCA 255 Hayson v John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited [2007] NSWCA 376 Jones v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd (No 3) [2016] NSWSC 922 Mohammed v Nationwide News Pty Ltd [2016] NSWSC 733 Toben v Nationwide News Pty Ltd; Toben v Mathieson [2015] NSWSC 1784 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Dr Ibrahimi Abu Mohammed (plaintiff) Nationwide News Pty Ltd (first defendant) Matthew Benns (second defendant) Miles Godfrey (third defendant) Representation: Counsel: S Chrysanthou (plaintiff) J Hmelnitsky SC, L Barnett (defendants)