Seven billionaire Kerry Stokes blasts ‘scumbag journalists’ over Roberts-Smith coverage

Seven West Media’s billionaire chairman Kerry Stokes has attacked “scumbag journalists” for their reporting on decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith and denied the use of company funds in a high-stakes defamation case involving the Victoria Cross recipient.

At the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday, Stokes defended Roberts-Smith, who is employed by Seven and is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over a series of stories published in 2018. Roberts-Smith says the stories wrongly accused him of being complicit in war crimes and committing an act of domestic violence against a former lover.

Callum Foote, who was attending the AGM on behalf of activist shareholder Stephen Mayne, said he was called over by a woman to speak to Stokes after the AGM concluded, where he had asked a series of questions about Roberts-Smith’s case and employment status.

“Tell Stephen that Ben Roberts-Smith is innocent and deserves legal representation and that scumbag journalists should be held to account. And quote me on that,” Stokes said, according to Foote.

Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes.Credit: Trevor Collens

Stokes was also asked at the AGM whether Seven was funding Roberts-Smith’s defamation case.

“The company has put no money into Ben Roberts-Smith,” said Stokes.

The Herald and The Age wrote last April that $1.89 million of company funds were lent to the ex-soldier to fight war-crime allegations, and the loan was paid in June 2020 by the Stokes family’s private company, ACE.

Seven’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam said Roberts-Smith, who was working as general manager of 7Queensland until the defamation case commenced, was still an employee of Seven.

“Obviously, Mr Roberts-Smith is an executive of the company, who is currently on leave,” McWilliam said.

Nine Entertainment Co chairman Peter Costello was asked at his company’s AGM on Thursday whether he had tried to speak with Stokes about the defamation case. Nine owns the Herald and The Age.

“How much money have we spent on the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation matter and have we tried to reach out to Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes to stop funding the most expensive defamation action in Australian history,” Mayne asked. “Shouldn’t journalism companies be working together on public interest journalism, not funding defamation actions against rivals?”

Nine Chairman Peter Costello speaking at the company’s AGM on Thursday.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Costello said: “We stand behind our journalists when we think they have done the right thing.”

Stokes also justified Seven’s decision to lodge a Federal Court action to try to blow up its $450 million deal with Cricket Australia, which expires in 2024, claiming that CA breached its Big Bash League broadcast rights contract. “They are being sued at the moment by Seven for misrepresentation,” Stokes said.

“They promised a certain quality of games in the Big Bash, and they failed to deliver that. And we didn’t think Afghanistan was an … alternative to one of the main countries as a Test.”

The BBL has struggled to generate high TV ratings since Seven acquired the rights in late 2018, and the claim is based on several factors such as scheduling one-day international matches and international Twenty20 matches (which both run on Foxtel) in conflict with the BBL’s schedule.

Seven’s chief executive James Warburton said the company’s deal to lock down AFL free-to-air rights from 2025 to 2031 would be “an important part of our content strategy”.

Seven shares closed 2.2 per cent lower at 45 cents.

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