Double Bay cosmetic surgeon Joseph Ajaka and his Cosmos Clinic successfully obtained a NSW Supreme Court order on Friday night that requires the mastheads and TV program to hand over material related to an investigation by Gold Walkley Award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson that was due to air on Sunday night.
Nine,the owner of those titles,had the orders stayed pending an appeal and was ordered not to publish before that occurred.
The ruling is being closely examined by Australian publishers,which are considering the impact on their newsrooms if the order is not successfully overturned. But it also generated outrage in the sector,with high-profile ABC investigative journalist Louise Milligan describing the move as “extraordinary” and “concerning”.
Hywood,who led Fairfax Media when it faced several high-profile defamation trials,said the decision was alarming. Fairfax Media merged with Nine in 2018.
“It’s extraordinary,unprecedented and if maintained,would have a deleterious effect on freedom of speech,” Hywood said. “We already have the most draconian defamation laws in the Western world and this would just be an added layer of restriction on the ability to publish issues of the public interest.”
Justice Stephen Rothman,who had not seen the draft content when he made the decision,said he accepted there was a possibility the level of damage to Ajaka and his Cosmos Clinic that could potentially arise might be “so great” and irreversible that it was necessary for the draft content to be handed over.
The order allows Ajaka and his high-profile lawyers,Sue Chrysanthou and Rebekah Giles,to review the content and assess whether to commence an application for an interlocutory injunction against their publication. Nine’s barrister,Dauid Sibtain,told the court on Friday it would set a precedent that was effectively “placing every plaintiff in the position of an editor”.