Nine settles with Clementine Ford, agrees to pay $39,000

The publisher had been sued by its former star columnist after a senior editor accused the outspoken feminist author of making vile and personal attacks on journalists.

Clementine Ford has settled her legal action against Nine Entertainment.

Nine Entertainment has settled defamation action with Clementine Ford and will pay her tens of thousands of dollars in damages after the company’s former star columnist took legal action against The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age executive editor Tory Maguire.

On Tuesday, Federal Court judge Jayne Jagot ordered the publisher and Maguire to pay Ford $39,000 in damages and accrued legal costs which are expected to be about $20,000.

Ford, represented by solicitor Rebekah Giles, last month launched defamation action against Maguire and the company over comments made to the Guardian Australia.

Maguire was quoted accusing Ford of engaging in “vile and personal attacks” on journalists and editors at the mastheads.

Tory Maguire.

The legal action was first flagged by The Australian’s Margin Call column in February.

Ford, who wrote a weekly column in the SMH and The Age, had her last column published for the masthead in early 2019 and resigned in February that year after claiming her employer had “threatened to fire” her for labelling Scott Morrison a “f … ing disgrace” on Twitter.

Ford said the action was a result of her failing to abide by Nine’s new social media policy that meant employees “didn’t disrespect the office of the PM”.

I’m very grateful for my excellent legal team, and glad this has been resolved in my favour. The statement made by Tory Maguire about me and my conduct to former colleagues was false and defamatory, and not even Nine was prepared to defend it. https://t.co/uiXSLwHWlj

— Clementine Ford 🧟‍♀️ (@clementine_ford) April 4, 2022

In November, Ford was interviewed about her new book – which explored love through Ford’s own experiences – by Nine’s senior writer Kerrie O’Brien. The article was published online in January but was abruptly stripped from Nine’s websites shortly after.

It did not appear in Nine’s print publications.

Maguire said the decision to pull the article was after a “breakdown in communication”.

Maguire also told Guardian Australia: “Clementine Ford spent years making vile and personal attacks on the journalists and editors of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after the mastheads stopped publishing her column”.

“I have pulled it from Spectrum and taken it down out of respect for my team,” she said.

Documents filed in the Federal Court by Ford’s lawyers claimed the comments were “defamatory” and likely to “cause serious harm to Ford’s reputation” and impact sales of her book. Maguire had “lack of personal knowledge of Ford and her tenure at Fairfax” and it was “unprofessional and malicious conduct in “pulling” the article that Ford took time to engage in”, the documents read. Ford also claimed the conduct by the publisher to withdraw the article was done to “publicly humiliate her”.

Ford said the judgment was “not just a win for me but for all the women who are relentlessly attacked and misrepresented by media organisations”.

“Robust dialogue and even disagreement must always be celebrated in the public sphere but I will not stand by as mendacious lies are put forward about me and my conduct towards my colleagues,” she said in a statement.

“The statement made by Tory Maguire about me and against me was false and defamatory and I feel vindicated in this outcome.”

Nine did not file a defence and a spokesman said the company was pleased the matter had now been resolved.