This week, your humble correspondent received some feedback from a reader regarding our ongoing coverage of the Bruce Lehrmann defamation saga.
“Doesn’t Crikey have something better to do than continually sniffing around the smelly orifices of the mainstream media?”
No. We don’t.
It’s increasingly difficult to keep track of just how many media companies have been sucked into the “radioactive snowball”, as the Financial Review’s Mark Di Stefano described it, that is the Lehrmann saga, with Lehrmann at one point pursuing three simultaneous proceedings against news.com.au, the ABC, and Network Ten. Infamously, the Seven Network has been intimately involved, while Nine has copped a mention or two in proceedings as well. The Australian, through its reporter Janet Albrechtsen, also has a unique and well-documented relationship with Lehrmann.
To recap, Lehrmann, a former Liberal staffer, was accused of raping colleague Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019. A later criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was abandoned after juror misconduct, and Lehrmann, who denies all wrongdoing, filed defamation suits against several media organisations that covered the accusations.
His case against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a 2021 The Project interview, in which Higgins alleged she was raped in Parliament House, is ongoing, with judgment expected to be delivered this week. Lehrmann was not named in the interview but alleges he was identifiable from the reporting.
To help out, Crikey has broken down the involvement of each media company caught up in the case, which as you will find, occasionally colours their reporting.
The ABC
In April 2023, Lehrmann filed defamation proceedings against the ABC, who broadcast a 2022 National Press Club speech by Brittany Higgins. The National Press Club address is traditionally broadcast weekly on the ABC.
In the speech, Higgins alleged she was raped on a couch in Parliament House, and said she was speaking “to drive change”, and “to make it easier for every woman to speak”.
As the case was about to go to trial in November last year, a last-minute settlement saw Lehrmann receive $150,000 from the ABC. In a statement, the ABC said the proceedings had “settled on mutually acceptable, confidential terms, without admission of liability”.
The ABC agreed, however, to remove Facebook and YouTube videos of the speeches.
Network Ten
The only ongoing defamation suit Lehrmann has against a media company is his case against Network Ten, which is expected to see judgment this week. The case has taken over a year and is in relation to a 2021 The Project interview between Brittany Higgins and journalist Lisa Wilkinson, in which Higgins alleged she was raped in Parliament House. Lehrmann was not named in the interview but alleges he was identifiable from the reporting.
The marathon case has heard evidence from dozens of witnesses, including Higgins herself. It was set to wrap up last week, but in a fresh twist, Network Ten’s lawyers sought to reopen the case after news.com.au reported that Seven, which secured a bombshell interview with Lehrmann on Spotlight that aired in June 2023, had used company assets in paying for Thai massages for Lehrmann.
Former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach gave explosive evidence in court that claimed Seven paid for “illicit drugs and prostitutes” as part of the extensive efforts involved in securing the interview with Lehrmann.
The case is expected to reach judgment this week.
News Corp website news.com.au is one of two Murdoch mastheads maintaining a particular interest in the Lehrmann saga. The website published an interview between political editor Samantha Maiden and Brittany Higgins that included her allegation that she was raped in Parliament House in 2019, but without naming Lehrmann. It went online the same day that The Project interview aired.
Lehrmann sued news.com.au and Samantha Maiden in April 2023, but by May had settled the matter, with News Corp agreeing to pay Lehrmann $295,000. The website’s editor-in-chief Lisa Muxworthy said the two relevant articles remain online and were updated with an editorial note, but there would be no apology or correction. Muxworthy also said that while no damages were paid, the settlement included a contribution to Lehrmann’s legal costs.
Samantha Maiden and news.com.au have since continued reporting on the Lehrmann saga, with Maiden responsible for the “Thai massage” story that would eventually see the case reopened to hear evidence from Taylor Auerbach.
Nine
Nine Entertainment, having successfully defended their reporting on disgraced war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, and being currently engaged in litigation against osseointegration surgeon Dr Munjed Al Muderis, have thus far avoided the wrath of Lehrmann’s lawyers.
The Nine newspapers continue to report on the case, with chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont breaking updates such as the revelation that Auerbach had filed a concerns notice with Lehrmann over his public denial of the “Thai massage” story.
However, the minutiae of Nine’s involvement became more apparent with the detail that they were on the shortlist of suitors to nab Lehrmann’s signature for the interview that would eventually become the infamous, Walkley Award-finalist Spotlight story.
In evidence last week, Auerbach said that Spotlight was on a list of two suitors for the Australian exclusive, along with Nine — after which Lehrmann planned to grant interviews to overseas media personalities Piers Morgan and Tucker Carlson.
Seven
The Seven Network remain intimately involved in the Lehrmann saga, not only having secured an exclusive interview with Lehrmann, but allegedly having done so via “benders” involving cocaine, sex workers, boozy lunches, luxury accommodation and golf trips.
Seven paid Lehrmann’s rent for a year at an initial rate of $4,000 a month and had agreed to pay ongoing accommodation costs, according to court documents, with Lehrmann being put up at various waterfront properties in some of Sydney’s most desired locations.
The eventual exclusive for Spotlight would be a finalist for the 2023 Walkley Awards under the Scoop of the Year category, only to be eventually disqualified after the Walkley board found that Seven had not accurately declared Lehrmann’s benefits received in exchange for the interview.
Seven has denied many of the allegations made in evidence by Auerbach in the courts, saying in a statement to staff last week that it was “appalled by the allegations made in recent days”.
“We do not condone the behaviours described in these allegations. They do not reflect the culture of Seven,” read the statement.
Sky News Australia
Sky News Australia came into the trial courtesy of having allegedly terminated the employment of Taylor Auerbach as the saga took a turn of its own in late March.
Auerbach’s alleged resentment at having been “sidelined” throughout the production of the Lehrmann story came to a head when former producer, Steve Jackson, received a plum job as the executive director of public affairs for NSW Police (the offer was later withdrawn).
In evidence, Auerbach admitted he distributed photographs of a topless former model (with whom he once had a brief relationship) and Jackson to media outlets, and that his termination from Sky was on “trust and confidence” grounds.
Auerbach signed with Sky in January, returning to the Murdoch family after beginning his career there in 2010.
The Australian
While The Australian has avoided any defamation suits thus far, the paper and columnist Janet Albrechtsen could politely be described as having a recurring role in the ongoing soap opera.
Albrechtsen, a former ABC board member and opinion columnist, has written extensively about the Lehrmann affair, which has been subject to much scrutiny. It has been described by Crikey’s political editor Bernard Keane as “a campaign of merciless character assassination of Brittany Higgins … devoted to the task of exemplary punishment of her for the damage she inflicted on the Liberal Party”.
Throughout an inquiry tasked with examining whether the Lehrmann criminal investigation and trial were subject to political influence, Albrechtsen was found by a court to have had 273 interactions, including 55 phone calls totalling seven and a half hours, with inquiry head Walter Sofronoff. Justice Stephen Kaye said in his judgement of the case brought by former ACT director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold that Sofronoff “might have been influenced by the views held and publicly expressed” by Albrechtsen.
Albrechtsen made another cameo appearance in the Lehrmann evidence last week, with texts between Auerbach and Jackson raising that Lehrmann wanted to go to the cricket in Sydney to meet up with Albrechtsen, despite Jackson stressing that Lehrmann needed to “understand the importance of keeping a low profile and staying out of the public eye”. Funnily enough, The Australian’s coverage of these texts made no mention of Albrechtsen.