Supreme Court
New South Wales
Case Name:
Voller v Nationwide News Pty Ltd; Voller v Fairfax
Media Publications Pty Ltd; Voller v Australian News
Channel Pty Ltd
Medium Neutral Citation:
[2019] NSWSC 766
Hearing Date(s):
6 – 8 February 2019
Date of Orders:
24 June 2019
Decision Date:
24 June 2019
Jurisdiction:
Common Law
Before:
Rothman J
Decision:
(1) The Court answers the following question in the
following manner:
“Whether the plaintiff has established the publication
element of the cause of action of defamation against
the defendant in respect of each of the Facebook
comments by third-party users?”
Answer: Yes
(2) The defendant in each proceeding shall jointly and
severally pay the plaintiff’s costs of and incidental to the
hearing of the separate question.
(3) Leave is reserved to the parties to make
application within seven (7) days for any special or
different order as to costs.
Catchwords:
DEFAMATION – Publication – Generally – Public
Facebook Page – Liability of Media Company Owner of
Public Facebook Page for comments by third-party
users – probable that defamatory comments would be