Stuff ruling to remain under wraps

Redactions made to a court judgment after Herald owner NZME’s attempt to buy media company Stuff will remain for another six months, a judge has ruled.

Justice Sarah Katz also said the publication of information contained in affidavits “would likely be harmful to Stuff and potentially beneficial to NZME as its competitor”.

The High Court in May declined to grant NZME’s interim injunction application over negotiations to buy Stuff from Australian firm Nine Entertainment.

Justice Katz said allowing NZME to maintain exclusive due diligence may increase the risk of Stuff ceasing operations, leading to significant job losses and reducing competition in the media marketplace.

Nine had said it felt the process had been frustrated and terminated negotiations with NZME.

Stuff was instead sold by Nine for a nominal $1 at the end of May to Stuff’s chief executive, Sinead Boucher, ending years of speculation about the company’s ownership and several unsuccessful attempts by NZME to buy or merge with the firm.

When Justice Katz’s May 18 judgment was publicly released, however, it was partially redacted.

The three firms then returned to court last month to argue over the potential release of the redacted material and other documents.

Stuff’s lawyer, Mark O’Brien, QC, opposed the release — a position which was broadly supported by Nine’s counsel, John Dixon, QC.

NZME’s lawyer, Jack Hodder, QC, meanwhile, took a “non-opposition” stance.

Yesterday, Justice Katz told media she has directed that the redactions made to her injunction judgment will remain in place until December 3.

She also withheld her reasons in her written decision on the issue until the same date.

“Given that the redactions judgment refers at length to the redacted information, publication of the redactions judgment must necessarily also be deferred until 3 December 2020,” Justice Katz told counsel and some journalists yesterday.

The judge also declined to publicly release some of the other material in the court file, including affidavits, after an application to inspect it was made by news website BusinessDesk. “Much of the content of the affidavits is confidential and commercially sensitive,” Justice Katz said in her ruling.