Daily Mail slow to move on potentially defamatory comments about Bruce Lehrmann on its Facebook page

A series of potentially defamatory comments about former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann were published on the Daily Mail’s Facebook page and remained there for days.

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

A series of potentially defamatory comments about former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann were published on the Daily Mail’s Facebook page and remained there for days before the online publisher finally took action.

In the past week, the Daily Mail published several articles which featured Mr Lehrmann, his former colleague Brittany Higgins and television presenter Lisa Wilkinson. It appears that some legally sensitive comments attached to some of the stories weren’t moderated when they were uploaded to the Daily Mail’s Facebook page.

Mr Lehrmann has repeatedly denied raping Ms Higgins and launched defamation action against Ten and News Life Media Pty Ltd – an arm of News Corp Australia – in the Federal Court last month.

Last week it was revealed Wilkinson, the former co-host of Ten’s The Project, will seek to prove the truth of the claim that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins, as she set out her legal defence against his defamation action.

The comments on the Daily Mail’s Facebook page were visible to anyone visiting the page.

However, The Australian has chosen not to republish them given they are of a potentially defamatory nature.

In 2021, the High Court determined that administrators – in this case media publishers – are legally liable for comments that are posted on their sites, and social media accounts, by third parties and members of the public.

The decision pertained to the case involving Dylan Voller, whose treatment at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in the Northern Territory received extensive media coverage, with news outlets posting stories about him on their Facebook pages.

The High Court, in a majority ruling, determined that news outlets were the publishers of the comments made on the stories even though the media outlets had no control over what was contained in the comments.

Consequently, many media outlets now turn off the comments function on stories of a sensitive nature.

Television presenter Lisa Wilkinson.

One media lawyer, who did not wish to be named, told The Australian that media outlets needed to be “very careful” when allowing comments to be published on their articles and posts, particularly when court proceedings were under way.

“As the law currently stands it’s far more likely than not that a media company will be found to be liable for posts,” he said.

“The posts (on the Daily Mail Facebook page) are absolute in the way they are stated.”

The Daily Mail Australia was contacted by The Australian about the posts on Sunday morning and within several hours of being alerted, the publisher changed the settings and removed some of the posts.

Daily Mail Australia’s editor, Barclay Crawford, would not respond to a series of questions by The Australian, including why it allowed defamatory comments to be made about Mr Lehrmann to be posted on its site. Instead, he took aim at News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian.

“I hate to use a cliche here, but this really is a case of the pot calling the kettle black,” he said.

“The real question you should be asking is why News Corp continues to publish, and is refusing to take down, the two articles which are the subject of defamation action by Mr Lehrmann.

“These articles are still shareable on social media (Facebook/Twitter et al) and as of 11.31am on Sunday, at least one of them is still on your company’s Facebook page, with comments still open.”

The one social media post Crawford referred to was published more than two years ago, with the word “alleges” in the caption. That story does not name any alleged perpetrators.

The news.com.au post reads: “A young Liberal Party staffer alleges she was raped at Parliament House and claims she felt forced to choose between reporting it to the police or keeping her job.”

Lawyers for Mr Lehrmann were contacted by The Australian but did not respond.