Osman Faruqi’s defamation case against Mark Latham set for trial

Mark Latham will file no evidence in his defence as part of a defamation case brought against him by journalist Osman Faruqi.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham arrives at the Supreme Court in Sydney.

Mark Latham will file no evidence in his defence as part of a defamation case brought against him by former Greens candidate and political journalist Osman Faruqi, which will go to trial next year.

In the Federal Court this morning, Justice Michael Wigney set the case down for trial over two days on April 11 and 12, 2019.

Mr Faruqi, the son of Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, is suing Mr Latham over a video shared in August, 2017, in which he was accused of “white racism” in his social media posts. The video was viewed more than 30,000 times, according to Mr Faruqi.

Osman Faruqi.

Mr Latham mentioned Mr Faruqi specifically in his Outsiders video program. “These people are fermenting (sic) hatred of white people,” he said, according to a transcript of the show supplied to the Federal Court. “As such, they are effectively encouraging terrorists in this political environment to do their worst.”

Mr Faruqi had shared on his Twitter, speaking to Yassmin Abdel-Magied, “The white people are getting f..ked Yas, it’s happening.” Mr Faruqi has argued Mr Latham’s comments made him out to be someone who “knowingly assists terrorist fanatics who want to kill innocent people” and “condones the murder of innocent people”.

“We’ve put our outlines (of evidence) on, we haven’t heard from the defendant,” barrister James Mack, acting for Mr Faruqi, said this morning. “There’s been a little bit of a breakdown in communication… The ball’s in their court and we haven’t heard back.”

Clarissa Amato, acting for Mr Latham, said they planned to question whether Mr Faruqi had actually seen the Outsiders program.

“The respondent doesn’t propose to serve any evidence,” she said.

“The only other issue that might come up is whether or not (Mr Faruqi) watched the program. Now we’ve seen their evidence, it’s reasonably clear he didn’t. That might be something that might come up in trial.”

Mr Mack asked for a trial date mid next year, as prominent defamation barrister Bruce McClintock SC was unavailable and had been working on the case from the beginning.

“You may have to get new counsel,” Judge Wigney said. “For a two-day hearing, it really can’t go to July or later. I’m going to have to give you dates in April.”

Mr Latham has filed a three-page defence to the defamation allegations, after having a 76-page, 12-part document struck out by Judge Wigney.

Judge Wigney referred the matter to mediation ahead of the April trial.