Chris Kenny v The Chaser - an update

A judge has ruled that Chris Kenny's defamation against the ABC can proceed to a jury.

And talking of disrepute ...

Let us turn to news of Chris Kenny, columnist at The Australian, who was famously portrayed as a "dogf***er" last year by the ABC’s The Hamster Decides.

We’re not going to show you the photoshopped image, but it was much like this one, which The Chaser team sent to Media Watch when we questioned whether their attack on Kenny was either funny or smart.

Last week, in the NSW Supreme Court, Kenny won the first round of his legal action against the ABC and Chaser team, which prompted this reaction from Ben Fordham on Sydney Radio


BEN FORDHAM: A judge has ruled, that the ABC was defamatory, against journalist Chris Kenny after it aired a skit, with him engaging in bestiality ...

— 2GB, Sydney Live, 6th March, 2014

In fact, the judge has merely ruled that the case can proceed to a jury.

And he threw out the most serious imputation that the skit suggested Kenny actually had sex with dogs.

But Justice Beech-Jones did call the Chaser’s attack ‘grossly disproportionate’ and he suggested it could cause people to conclude Kenny was a 'low, contemptible and disgusting person'.

That could be tough to defend.

But it will be up to a four-person jury to decide whether that meaning arose and whether Kenny was in fact defamed.

If Kenny were to win, damages of up to $355,000 could then be awarded by the judge, with costs on top.

But there’s far more than that at stake, not least because the Prime Minister has suggested the ABC should not fight the case.


TONY ABBOTT: Well, the point I make is that, government money should be spent sensibly. And defending the indefensible is not a very good way to spend government money and, next time the ABC comes to the government looking for more money, this is the kind of thing that we would want to ask them questions about.

— 2GB, Sydney Live, 6th March, 2014

Tony Abbott’s warning to the ABC ... and the Kenny court decision ... were covered at length in The Australian, with two news articles and a further comment piece all making the point that the ABC should say sorry and drop its defence.

The Oz also quoted Chris Kenny telling Channel 9 that the ABC’s refusal to say sorry had forced him to take action.

As Kenny told Media Watch:


CHRIS KENNY: The ABC had weeks to negotiate an apology but there was no attempt to deal with that, they dug their heels in from the start.

— Chris Kenny, Journalist, 7th March, 2014

Now, Chris Kenny is a journalist and a champion of free speech, so we can’t agree that he was forced to sue.

And it was not just an apology he was after. He also wanted money both for compensation and for legal costs.

But demanding the public broadcaster apologize is a popular theme with his employer, The Australian, and ABC managing director Mark Scott is one of their favourite targets.

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