Defamation cases cost ABC $1.9m over three years

The nation’s public broadcaster has revealed the eye-watering cost of fighting and settling defamation cases over the last three years.

Australia’s public broadcaster has spent almost $2m on defamation lawsuits in just three years, documents presented to the senate have revealed.

Responding to a question on notice by Nationals senator Ross Cadell, ABC managing director David Anderson disclosed the broadcaster had spent $1.18m on legal costs over two financial years.

Over the same period, the ABC paid out more than $750,000 to settle defamation suits.

Senator Cadell had requested the costs of litigation and settlements over the past four years but restricted his question to years where the ABC had resolved more than three cases to avoid identifying individual payouts.

ABC managing director David Anderson says journalists are provided with regular legal training. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Those figures, which were recorded for the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 financial years, were the only two years where resolutions of defamation action had exceeded three separate cases.

In its response, the ABC said the costs included all legal fees incurred, including from previous years, prior to the dispute being resolved.

Senator Cadell’s question came as the ABC fights a massive defamation battle against ex-commando Heston Russell.

The former special forces operative is suing the broadcaster and two investigative journalists over stories published in 2020 and 2021 that he claims made it look like he was being investigated for shooting an unarmed prisoner.

Former commando Heston Russell is suing the ABC in Sydney’s Federal Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Earlier this year, Mr Anderson revealed during budget estimates that the public broadcaster received, on average, 16 concerns notices each year between 2018 and 2022.

A concerns notice is a legal requirement prior to beginning a defamation lawsuit, provided to inform the publisher of the defamatory imputations.

Over those four years, about one-third resulted in legal action being initiated against the ABC.

Responding to another question regarding legal training provided to ABC staff, Mr Anderson said journalists received regular training.

“All journalists are expected to complete legal training each year which includes sub judice contempt,” he said.

“The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) legal team (ABC Legal) runs a media law fundamentals session (including contempt) once a month and a session providing advice on reporting on criminal matters presently around once every six months.

“Legal guidance materials are available to journalists reporting on criminal investigations.

“In addition to the legal guidance materials, the on-call legal prepublication service provides crucial real-time advice to journalists and is available 24 hours per day.”