O'Reilly v. Edgar
Case Law- Country
- Country Location
Latitude: -24.13114257073859
Longitude: 135.63642619925068
- Country Location (linked Case Law)
- Australia
- Decision Date
- 22 de fev. de 2019
- Case Status
- Closed
- Case Outcome (Procedural)
- Motion Granted
- Case Outcome (Disposition)
- Blocking or Filtering of Information
- Monetary Damages/Fines
- Keywords
- Defamation
- False News
- Publications
- Social Media
- Judicial Body
- Supreme Court (court of final appeal)
- Case Number
- [2019] QSC 24
- Case Summary
The Supreme Court of Queensland ruled the publication of ten separate posts on Facebook about Karting Australia CEO Kelvin O’Reilly were defamatory. The publisher of the defamatory matter had described the CEO as a “bully” and a “crook” and accused him of “incompetence,” “corruption,” “sexual harassment” and bringing “disrepute” to Karting Australia. The Court observed that the posts were injurious to the reputation of the CEO as there was no truth in, nor basis for, the alleged imputations. Considering the injury to O’Reilly’s personal and business reputation, as well as his personal distress owing to the "grapevine” effect, i.e. rapid and widespread dissemination of information, the Court awarded damages. The Court also awarded “aggravated damages” because of the lack of good faith demonstrated by the publisher before and during trial. Thus, an aggregate amount of $250,000 Australian Dollars with interest on damages was awarded to the Karting Australia CEO and an injunction order was passed ordering the publisher to remove the posts and to restrain any future publication of the defamatory material.
- Case Significance
The decision establishes a binding or persuasive precedent within its jurisdiction.
- Related Caselaw (self)
- Source Name and URL
- Columbia Global Freedom of Expression