Landmark Australian Twitter Defamation Case
Wednesday 9 April 2014 @ 10.29 a.m. | IP & Media | Torts, Damages & Civil Liability
A former student of Orange High School has been ordered to pay $105,000 for defaming a teacher on Twitter and Facebook. This is the first Australian Twitter defamation case to proceed to trial.
Background to the Case
The unreported judgment was handed down in November 2013 and former student Andrew Farley was ordered to pay compensatory and aggravated damages for making false allegations about music teacher Christine Mickle. The comments followed Ms Mickle’s takeover of Mr Farley’s father’s position as head teacher of music at Orange High School. Mr Farley bore a grudge against Ms Mickle based on the belief that she had something to do with his father leaving the school. However, Judge Elkaim found that there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate that belief.
The comments had a devastating effect on Ms Mickle who took immediate sick leave and later returned to work only on a part-time basis. There was evidence that, in the absence of Mr Farley's comments, Ms Mickle would have continued teaching "until she reached the age of 65" in seven years' time. Judge Elkaim ordered Mr Farley to pay $85,000 in compensatory damages. He also found that Mr Farley’s conduct in ignoring an original request from Ms Mickle and her solicitor to remove the comments warranted an additional $20,000 in aggravated damages.
Further Implications
The case is a strong reminder that normal defamation laws do apply to Twitter even if seldom acted upon. Andrew Kenyon, professor at Melbourne University’s Centre for Media and Communications Law, finds a lot of comments and statements on Twitter that may not be true and people usually don’t sue. He says that Mr Farley could have potentially avoided the litigation if he had apologised when prompted.
“All businesses need to realise that they are now publishers and are therefore subject to all media laws like defamation.”
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