Gayle awarded $320,000

Fairfax Media has taken aim at the ‘‘appalling burden of defamation laws’’ in Australia after being ordered to pay A$300,000 (NZ$320,000) in damages to international cricketer Chris Gayle over a series of defamatory reports alleging he exposed himself to a massage therapist during the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Sydney.

In a long-awaited judgment on damages, handed down yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum yesterday awarded the West Indies cricketer a single sum for a series of articles published in January, 2016, in The Sydney

Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.

Gayle launched defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media in 2016 over a series of articles which alleged he exposed himself to massage therapist Leanne Russell during the Cricket World Cup in February, 2015.

A four-person jury found in October last year that Fairfax had failed to establish a defence of truth to the three allegations at the centre of the case, namely that he intentionally exposed his genitals, indecently exposed himself and indecently propositioned Ms Russell.

‘‘In light of the jury’s verdict I am required to assess damages on the basis that the allegation of indecent exposure was not true and that the attribution of such conduct was very damaging to Mr Gayle’s reputation,’’ Justice McCallum said.

The jury also knocked out the publisher’s defence of qualified privilege, which requires a media outlet to show defamatory articles were of public interest and it acted reasonably in publishing them.

The defence can be defeated by malice, meaning the articles were published for an improper purpose. The jury found malice had been established, wiping the defence out.

Justice McCallum said she had ‘‘disregarded the defendants’ malice in my assessment of damages’’ because Gayle had not given evidence in court about whether the hurt and harm he suffered was increased as a result of the publisher’s conduct in this respect.

But Justice McCallum said Gayle’s evidence on hurt to his feelings more generally was ‘‘surprisingly compelling’’ and ‘‘a particular source of hurt for Mr Gayle were the fact that there were calls for him to be banned from international cricket’’.

Fairfax Media plans to lodge an appeal in the case and a company spokesperson yesterday said it remained ‘‘concerned with the conduct of the trial’’.

‘‘The jury was misled in a way that prejudiced Fairfax, and Fairfax did not get a fair trial,’’ the spokesperson said.

‘‘The damages award merely confirms the appalling burden of defamation laws in this country.’’