The Daily Telegraph has expressed disappointment with Judge Michael Wigney’s characterisation of actor Eryn Jean Norvill as an unreliable witness “prone to exaggeration and embellishment”.
“We are disappointed with Justice Wigney’s findings, in particular his dismissal of Eryn Jean Norvill’s evidence,” Daily Telegraph editor Ben English said after the court awarded Geoffrey Rush at least $850,000 in damages for defamation.
“We disagree with his criticisms of her and she has our full support.
“We will now review the judgment.”
English did not comment on Wigney’s comments that the Telegraph’s reports had been “sensationalist journalism of the worst kind”.
Wigney did not believe Norvill’s evidence and said the Daily Telegraph published a “recklessly irresponsible piece of journalism” calculated to damage Rush.
It was Christopher Dore and not English who was editing the Telegraph in 2017 when the decision was made to publish a front-page story about the acclaimed actor, which was described in the judgment as “sensational and unfair”.
Dore, a former editor of the Courier Mail, is now the editor of national broadsheet the Australian. He declined to comment on the judgment.
Wigney did not spare the Telegraph or its entertainment journalist Jonathon Moran, who was co-respondent to Rush’s defamation suit.
Moran, an established celebrity reporter and columnist on the Sydney newspaper, is believed to have the support of News Corp management despite the damaging and expensive judgment.
Moran retains his title of chief entertainment reporter and contributes to the Sydney Confidential gossip column.
Wigney said the most striking feature of Moran’s articles was “the relative paucity of actual objective information”.
Former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes said Australian defamation law was so tough journalists must have solid evidence if they are going to allege wrongdoing by prominent people.
“The Rush judgment and the Rebel Wilson affair put Australian media on notice: run allegations against celebrities at your peril because the courts set the bar high,” Holmes said. “Maybe Eryn Jean Norvill should sue the Tele too: its decision to run with the Rush story without her consent has ended in severe damage to her reputation as well as Rush’s.”
Wigney said the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid had made a “direct and full-frontal attack” on Rush’s reputation, especially since it framed the story against the background of US producer Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement.
“The photograph and the headline clearly and spectacularly conveyed that Mr Rush was effectively guilty of that inappropriate behaviour and that it was sexual in nature,” Wigney said.
“I need only repeat here what I said earlier in that part of these reasons which deals with the question whether the alleged imputations were conveyed. The vice in the image and headline on the front page is that it effectively poisoned the reader’s mind from the outset.”
The Telegraph is considering whether to lodge an appeal.
