Federal Courtroom Justice Michael Lee stated that whereas Community Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had “legally justified their imputation of rape”, it didn’t imply their conduct “was justified in any broader or colloquial sense”.
“The contemporaneous paperwork and the published itself exhibit the allegation of rape was the minor theme, and the allegation of cover-up was the foremost motif,” the choose stated in his 324-page judgment.
Lisa Wilkinson outdoors the Federal Courtroom in Sydney on Monday.Credit score: Wolter Peeters
Lee stated the “publication of accusations of corrupt conduct in placing up roadblocks and forcing a rape sufferer to decide on between her profession and justice” noticed the broadcaster’s program The Venture, of which Wilkinson was then a co-host, take away the “glittering prize” of Most Excellent Information Protection or Public Affairs Report on the 2022 Logie Awards.
Nonetheless, he stated that accusation “was supposition with out affordable basis in verifiable reality”, its dissemination “precipitated a brume of confusion” and it did “a lot collateral injury”.
This included impacting the truthful and orderly progress of the underlying allegation of sexual assault by means of the prison justice system, he added.
Lisa Wilkinson holding her Logie award in June 2022 for her interview with Brittany Higgins.Credit score: Getty Pictures
“To the extent there have been perceived systemic points as to avenues of grievance and assist companies in parliament, this may increasingly have merited a type of fact-based critique, not the publication of insufficiently scrutinised and factually misconceived conjecture,” Lee stated.
Wilkinson’s speech referencing Brittany Higgins, as she accepted the Logie on behalf of The Venture, noticed Bruce Lehrmann’s prison trial delayed. Nonetheless, the courtroom heard that speech had been reviewed by Ten administration and attorneys.
“What turned obvious by the tip of the proof was the motion in giving the speech was not, as many urged on the time, a case of Ms Wilkinson going off on a frolic and irresponsibly saying one thing off the highest of her head. She was sufficiently prudent to hunt recommendation,” Lee stated.
