Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said that while Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had “legally justified their imputation of rape”, it did not mean their conduct “was justified in any broader or colloquial sense”.

“The contemporaneous documents and the broadcast itself demonstrate the allegation of rape was the minor theme, and the allegation of cover-up was the major motif,” the judge said in his 324-page judgment.

Lee said the “publication of accusations of corrupt conduct in putting up roadblocks and forcing a rape victim to choose between her career and justice” saw the broadcaster’s program The Project, of which Wilkinson was then a co-host, take away the “glittering prize” of Most Outstanding News Coverage or Public Affairs Report at the 2022 Logie Awards.

However, he said that accusation “was supposition without reasonable foundation in verifiable fact”, its dissemination “caused a brume of confusion” and it did “much collateral damage”.

This included impacting the fair and orderly progress of the underlying allegation of sexual assault through the criminal justice system, he added.

“To the extent there were perceived systemic issues as to avenues of complaint and support services in parliament, this may have merited a form of fact-based critique, not the publication of insufficiently scrutinised and factually misconceived conjecture,” Lee said.

Wilkinson’s speech referencing Brittany Higgins, as she accepted the Logie on behalf of The Project, saw Bruce Lehrmann’s criminal trial delayed. However, the court heard that speech had been reviewed by Ten management and lawyers.

“What became apparent by the end of the evidence was the action in giving the speech was not, as many suggested at the time, a case of Ms Wilkinson going off on a frolic and irresponsibly saying something off the top of her head. She was sufficiently prudent to seek advice,” Lee said.