Defamation upheld

NATIONWIDE News has lost one appeal and won another against former Bulletin journalist Malcolm Weatherup, who was awarded $ 100,000 in a defamation lawsuit. Mr Weatherup sued over an article in The Australian. Last year a Supreme Court jury ruled the item defamed him by falsely implying he was “habitually drunk”. Nationwide News, which has the same parent company as the Bulletin, unsuccessfully appealed the jury’s findings on four grounds. It successfully appealed one finding, that the contextual imputation that Mr Weatherup “in a fit of anger, committed the crime of wilful damage by kicking the door of a car belonging to his neighbour” was substantially true. The company successfully appealed the order to pay some costs.