SYDNEY - A Federal Court judge has awarded Treasurer Joe Hockey A$200,000 in damages, after finding that a Sydney Morning Herald poster and two Twitter messages posted by its Fairfax Media stablemate The Age defamed him.
Hockey sued the publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times, after it ran articles relating to political donations made to the Liberal Party via a secretive fundraising body, the North Sydney Forum.
Handing down his judgment on Tuesday afternoon in Adelaide, and in Sydney via audio-visual link, Justice Richard White upheld a claim that a newspaper placard for the Sydney Morning Herald, which bore the words "Treasurer for Sale" in large bold print was defamatory and that Mr Hockey should be awarded A$120,000 in relation to that publication.
"I find that the respondents have not made out their claims of qualified privilege and even if they did, the defences would then be defeated in the case of the poster ... by the malice actuating," he said.
Justice White awarded A$80,000 in relation to the tweets.
