Media outlets paid total $445,000 to settle Lehrmann legal actions

Details of defamation settlements between Bruce Lehrmann and the ABC and News Life Media have been revealed in the Federal Court.

Bruce Lehrmann outside court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The ABC paid $150,000 to Bruce Lehrmann’s legal fund to settle defamation proceedings over a National Press Club address featuring Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame, and has promised to publish an online statement and remove videos of the address from social media.

News Life Media, the publisher of news.com.au and this masthead, paid $295,000 towards Mr Lehrmann’s legal costs to settle seperate defamation proceedings relating to two articles detailing rape allegations made by Brittany Higgins.

Neither media organisation admitted to liability for the respective publications.

The Federal Court on Wednesday afternoon released a document revealing the ABC paid $143,000 to Mr Lehrmann’s legal fund, and the remaining $7000 was given to solicitors of journalist Laura Tingle who was required to comply with a subpoena to produce documents in relation to the proceedings.

In addition to paying legal costs, the ABC agreed not to reinstate a YouTube video and to remove a Facebook video of the Press Club address. In return, Mr Lehrmann agreed to discharge the public broadcaster from any future proceedings which “rise out of, are incidental to, or are in any way connected” to the address.

Much later in the evening, around 9.30pm, another document was released by the Federal Court detailing the terms of a settlement made by News Life Media in relation to a news.com.au article published on February 15, 2021.

As part of the settlement, News Life Media added an editor’s note to the bottom of two articles, which made reference to the defamation proceedings and said news.com.au did not suggest Mr Lehrmann was guilty of rape.

Additionally, Mr Lehrmann will not be permitted to sue News Life Media or any of its employees over articles written about him prior to the date of settlement.

The ABC announced last month that its defamation proceedings had been discontinued, just before Mr Lehrmann’s defamation trial with Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson began.

Mr Lehrmann had launched legal action against the public broadcaster this year over the February 9, 2022, Press Club address, which he said imputed he “raped Brittany Higgins on a couch in Parliament House”, despite his name not being used.

Mr Lehrmann had claimed while some viewers were aware he was the person alleged to have sexually assaulted Ms Higgins when she made her address, others were “invited … to speculate about the identity of the accused person” by looking up articles that named him as the accused online. The ABC had argued the broadcast was in the public’s interest.

Mr Lehrmann’s defamation action News Life Media and journalist Samantha Maiden related to two articles he claimed defamed him in their reportage of allegations by Ms Higgins that she was raped in Parliament House in March 2019.

Mr Lehrmann was not named in these reports but claimed he was nevertheless able to be identified by them.

Mr Lehrmann has vehemently and consistently denied raping Ms Higgins.