David Norris (Independent)

Section 18(2)(a) states "where the defendant is not the author of the opinion, believed that the author believed it to be true". If a person says Joe Bloggs in the Evening Herald said something with which he or she completely agrees but which turns out to be defamatory, is that the type of example contemplated in the provision? Perhaps the Minister could give the House an example of a situation in which somebody makes a defamatory statement relying on an opinion of somebody else? I take it that it is a question of agreement with a statement being made by some other party.

With regard to the question of honest opinion and fair comment, it is probably difficult sometimes to prove that it is not a fair comment or honest opinion. There was a case some years ago, which the Minister may remember, where a journalist with Senator Maurice Hayes's group of newspapers wrote an article in the aftermath of a situation in which a District Court judge had been very snotty about the use of mobile phones in court and gave a long diatribe from the Bench about it.

Subsequently, another judge had a telephone on the Bench which rang and the journalist wrote an article exposing this, mocking and ridiculing it and holding the Judiciary up to contempt over this issue, suggesting that its members were not practising what they preached. However, the judge had a good reason for having the telephone because there was no working telephone installation in the court and he was awaiting information which was germane to the hearing of the case. It was in the professional discharge of his duty that the telephone rang. It was able to be proved subsequently that the journalist knew the situation because he had read the original article, and as a result, the defence failed. Perhaps the Minister remembers that case. I presume this provision would operate in the same way, namely, if it could be demonstrated that a journalist manipulated the facts while knowing there was a good reason for what appeared to the public to be a kind of contradiction.