ABC Four Corners journalist Louise Milligan urges media to correct their mistakes

Four Corners’ investigative reporter Louise Milligan said journalists must take swift action to correct any errors they make or ‘hang their heads in shame’.

ABC investigative journalist Louise Milligan.

ABC investigative journalist Louise Milligan told a writers festival on Sunday that reporters and media outlets must correct any mistakes they make “immediately” – and if they fail to do so they “should hang their heads in shame”.

The high profile Four Corners’ reporter, who has been involved in two well-publicised defamation proceedings in the past year, told the Melbourne Writers Festival on Sunday that the process can be “exhausting and traumatic”, but if errors are made by reporters they must be quickly fixed.

“If we make mistakes we must correct it immediately and people who don’t should hang their heads in shame,” she told the audience of about 200 people.

Milligan’s comments at the event raised eyebrows, given her own failure to immediately correct the record after making defamatory and untrue statements about former federal MP Andrew Laming in March last year.

Milligan accused Dr Laming of “upskirting” a woman, despite the fact that the politician was never charged by Queensland Police over the incident, and was completely cleared of any wrongdoing.

Dr Laming initially asked Milligan to delete the tweet and apologise. She eventually deleted the post in June last year, and almost three months after the alleged incident posted a lengthy statement to Twitter in which she acknowledged the claims that Dr Laming took an “upskirt” photo were incorrect.

But Milligan refused to apologise, which prompted the Coalition MP to launch legal action.

The ABC funded Milligan’s legal costs in the matter, with the taxpayer-funded broadcaster covering the $200,000 bill, which including a $79,000 damages payout to Dr Laming.

“She preferred to use taxpayers’ money for a Federal Court settlement than have any risk of loss of face that comes with an apology,” Dr Laming told The Australian on Sunday.

Before an audience of about 200 people at the festival, Milligan criticised the defamation laws in Australia, saying: “It’s for people with means, or people with blind trusts or whatever, who can afford to do it.”

Former federal MP Andrew Laming. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

She spoke of the defamation proceedings she was involved in last year with former Attorney-General Christian Porter, who launched legal action in the Federal Court against the public broadcaster and herself.

“It’s absolutely exhausting and traumatic and I was working every day from first thing in the morning ‘til midnight, just preparing,” she said.

“The system is designed to frighten and disempower journalists, and you have to be so tough.”  Mr Porter discontinued the case in May last year and it was later revealed the ABC agreed to pay $100,000 in mediation costs relating to the legal action.

Milligan was discussing the risks of investigative journalism and defamation laws alongside The Age’s deputy editor and investigations editor, Michael Bachelard, SMH and Age investigative reporters Kate McClymont and Nick McKenzie, and defamation barrister Matthew Collins KC.

McKenzie said the defamation proceedings Nine Entertainment is fighting in the Federal Court against Victorian Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith will cost the company more than $20m.

The trial has finished and the judge is yet to deliver his verdict.

“Nine has deep pockets and it is funding hard journalism and, more importantly, the defo cases that go with it,” McKenzie said.

But Nine Publishing managing director James Chessell told The Australian later on Sunday that McKenzie’s reference to the cost of the Roberts-Smith case was inaccurate.

“This figure (more than $20m) is not correct,” he said.

“We haven’t – and won’t be – disclosing the costs of the case.

“I agree with Nick that it’s a great thing that Nine is backing its journalists.”

McKenzie went on to suggest that other media outlets, including The Australian and the Herald Sun, didn’t pursue investigative journalism projects with the same vigour as Nine.

McKenzie failed to mention the years of investigative work by The Australian’s chief correspondent Hedley Thomas into the disappearance of Sydney mother Lynette Dawson in 1982, a project which cost millions of dollars but ultimately resulted in Chris Dawson’s murder conviction last month. In 2018, The Teacher’s Pet podcast earned Thomas and producer Slade Gibson a Gold Walkley, the highest honour for investigative journalists in Australia.

McKenzie also overlooked the Herald Sun’s Lawyer X expose by reporters Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, which revealed a defence barrister acting for feared gangland and mafia figures in Victoria was also a police informer. The investigation was recognised with a Gold Walkley in 2019.

In fact, News Corp Australia journalists have won three of the past four Gold Walkeys; over the same period, journalists from The Age have not won any.