News Stories Considered Sam Groth Started Dating His Wife, Brittany, While She Was Still Underage From “No Sense” Given “Weapon” Claims Through the opponents of the Liberal MP, who wants to become premier, the publisher told a court.
The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drop and Herald Sun Editor Sam Weir were hit with a series of articles in July. Groth was angry for the slander while his wife launched the first case of the trial New Laws for serious invasions of privacy.
The articles relate to a couple who met at a tennis club in Suburban Melbourne and began a sexual relationship when Brittany was 16 or Sam – then a professional player – 23 and Sam – told his coach, the court was told.
Sign up: AU Breaking News Email
In a court hearing on Thursday Hwt lawyer, Mateo Collins KC, argued that the Tabloid is protected from the new privacy under $ 478,000 – because of an exemption provided for journalists.
Collins said that the laws clearly define the exemption as applying to those who work as journalists, following an applicable news code, in news activities, current affairs or “commentary” or opinion “.
He said the articles were not “some gossip one might read in a glossy women’s magazine”, but “the exact kind of journalism that is the subject of the exemption”.
“What is journalistic material, simply, is what the editor of the Herald Sun puts on the front page of the newspaper,” Collins told the court.
He said that the public interest articles provided by them concerned “a person who aspires to be the deputy premier of the state and announces the ambitions of one day becoming the premier of the state”.
Collins also told the court that it was also based on information in the public domain, as the couple had talked about meeting at a suburban tennis club in previous interviews.
“Like it or not, the article reports that the relationship was made. This is not the scurrilaus, purely private exposure of an adulterous partnership with a private party,” he said.
“It is a weapon in a febrile environment in this state, where it is announced, the State Liberal Party is breaking itself, and where we have a government [which] Important … Details of Dagway against the opposition for its own political advantages. “
Collins said it was “not a good test case” for the new laws, because it was a “Page One article
Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing the groths, argued that the question of exemption should be heard at the same time as the trial.
He argues that the story does not meet the characteristics of news, because it is not a “true presentation of information”. Instead, it was “a piece of rumour” passed on by “some Liberal Party politician in December”, he told the court.
Chrysanthou said when the relationship started when Brittany was underage and the matter was reported to the police, which was published in her name illegally.
“The only thing that saves the respondents from a criminal charge is the fact that the allegation is true, lacking any basis, that he has not told it to the police,” he said.
“It’s not something that should be talked about publicly, let alone published on the front page of Melbourne’s most widely read newspaper.”
Chrysantou urged the court to proceed with a trial as planned in May, noting the couple paid their own legal costs.
Judge Shaun Melceltaine said the case raised “difficult questions” and agreed that despite the early stages, the costs incurred were “significant”. He said this should be highlighted by the parties as they meet for mediation on Friday.
Melcwaine reserved his ruling on whether the exemption argument will be heard separately at trial.