Castan Centre for Human Rights Law

Tag: defamation

  • Do we need better privacy protection in Australia?

    By Adam Fletcher Protection of privacy in Australia was brought into stark relief last week with the ABC’s coverage of the Federal Government’s current compulsory Australian Health Survey being conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABC reports that  some participants have found the survey “deeply intrusive and a stressful violation of their privacy” because…

  • Chris Mitchell should put up rather than shut up

    by Sarah Joseph Followers of the Castan Centre Blog would know of the #twitdef imbroglio, ostensibly between the Editor-in-Chief of “the Australian” newspaper, Chris Mitchell, and University of Canberra journalism academic Julie Posetti. It is an interesting tale for the uninitiated, involving threats of a defamation suit over a series of tweets. For background, see my…

  • The High Court and the Freedom of Political Communication

    By Melissa Castan What do Australian charities’ tax exemptions, #Twitdef and Wikileaks all have in common? Give me a moment. Last week the High Court held that Aid/Watch is a charitable organisation for the purposes of tax assessment. This would be unremarkable, but Aid/Watch is an organisation that campaigns for effective foreign aid policies through…

  • Developments in Twitter Defamation case.

    By Sarah Joseph My blog on Sunday regarding this issue had an unprecedented number of hits for the Castan blog, indicating a great level of interest in this story. The hits may also reflect that relatively little attention has been paid to this issue in the mainstream media, hence more reliance on blogs and especially…

  • Defamation, Twitter and Free Speech

    Sarah Joseph An extraordinary thing happened in Australia’s media community last week. Julie Posetti, a journalism lecturer and prolific tweeter, attended a journalism conference in Sydney. One of the speakers was Asa Wahlquist, who used to write climate change articles for the Australian.  The Australian has been under some fire recently for its perceived conservative bias (see,…

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