Emails and records pertaining to a defamation lawsuit that former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith lost have been demanded from Seven and the private investment vehicle of the company’s chairman, Kerry Stokes. Seven will also foot the bill for an unsuccessful attempt to have subpoenas quashed.
Roberts-Smith filed a lawsuit against nine publications, including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as the Canberra Times, alleging that articles published after a judge’s June ruling presented a “substantially true” picture of him as a war criminal who committed four killings while serving in Afghanistan.
He is appealing the ruling that rejected his defamation lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2018, and has not been charged criminally.
The defamation lawsuit against newspapers published by Fairfax, which is currently owned by Nine, was largely sponsored by Australian Capital Equity (ACE), a private investment firm established by Kerry Stokes, the chairman of Seven Network, his previous employer.
This webpage is published by Nine.The matter was heard by the court after more than a hundred days.
In order to support its request that Seven and ACE foot the enormous legal bill associated with the protracted legal dispute—which is estimated to be worth over $25 million—Nine requested the records.
Before a full Federal Court hearing last week, the parties appealed subpoenas they claimed were too broad and would capture subjects only loosely tied to proceedings.
Nicholas Owens SC, Nine’s attorney, stated that even “glancing” allusions to the case would help their case because the entire relationship between ACE, Seven, and Roberts-Smith needed to be investigated.
Justice Ian Jackman declared today that Seven and ACE’s appeal against the subpoenas was denied and that they would be responsible for paying Nine’s appeal expenses.
