Australian Newspaper Editor Threatens Defamation Suit Over Tweet Paraphrasing What Someone Else Said

from the following-the-bouncing-legal-threats dept

There have been a bunch of big stories lately -- with Homeland Security's domain name seizures and the whole Wikileaks situation -- so I hadn't been paying much attention to an ongoing story down in Australia, concerning a threat by the Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Newspaper, Chris Mitchell, to sue a journalism professor, Julie Posetti, over a series of tweets she wrote at a conference trying to paraphrase what former Australian reporter Asa Wahlquist was saying on a panel.

The details are somewhat convoluted, but the link above lays them out quite carefully. Basically, there was a journalism conference, and one of the panels was discussing how the media was covering "climate change" as a story. Apparently, the general sense among everyone involved was "that climate change is real, and crucially important, and inadequately reported." Wahlquist, on the panel, noted that one of the reasons why she had resigned was that she felt pressure in what she was writing on such topics. Posetti summarized that in a series of quick tweets. As is quite typical for those live tweeting an event, she paraphrased what was being said. I do this too. It's about the only practical way to post in real time and stick with the 140 character limit. It does appear that she may have, just slightly, misheard one thing that was said by Wahlquist, and implied that Mitchell had directly influenced what Wahlquist wrote about. From a recording that later came out, it appears that Wahlquist was a little less specific, stating: "The other thing that was happening at The Australian before I left was the editor-in-chief and the editors (were?) becoming much more prescriptive and you saw that in the lead-up to the election, where you were actually being told what to write."

Posetti simplified this to state:
"Wahlquist: 'In the lead up to the election the Ed in Chief was increasingly telling me what to write.' It was prescriptive."
That's a pretty close paraphrase, but Mitchell took great exception to this (and two other tweets that really were more expressing opinions), and said that he never put pressure on Wahlquist. And here's where The Streisand Effect enters. Not too many people had seen Posetti's tweets -- or really paid too much attention to them. Until Mitchell went into the pages of his own newspaper and threatened to sue Posetti for defamation -- which was indeed followed up by a legal threat letter (pdf).

Suddenly, this off-handed paraphrase of a tweet got a lot more attention (reasonably so), especially when the editor of a major newspaper threatens to sue someone for defamation over a tweet paraphrasing what someone else said. Mitchell later claimed that Wahlquist claimed she had not said what Posetti had tweeted, but once the audio became clear, it seemed pretty clear that Posetti's tweets were pretty damn close -- and if there was that one tiny slip up, it's hardly worth a defamation lawsuit. And, really, if Mitchell has anyone to complain about, it's Wahlquist -- though, again, only if what she said was really inaccurate. Jonathan Holmes, of Austalia's ABC, summarizes the whole mess and suggests that Mitchell needs to calm down and realize that if Wahlquist said what she said, he should at least be realizing that some of his reporters felt that way, and strive to fix it, rather than threaten the messenger.

Looking back, it's really amazing how many mistakes were made here. There was overreacting to a tweet. Blaming the messenger. Calling way more attention to it than necessary. Actually carrying through with legal threats and then denying that any of the original statements of opinion could be valid. Oh, and we left out the bit where Mitchell's own paper has railed against Australian defamation law, saying that they "act to suppress free speech and enrich lawyers..." Oh, really now?
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Filed Under: australia, defamation, reporting, twitter


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  • icon
    Nastybutler77 (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 3:10pm

    Before "The Streisand Effect" there was the saying, "best to let sleeping dogs lie." You'd think Mitchell would at least be familiar with that saying, but now he's getting an education on the Streisand Effect.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Ashlar, 3 Dec 2010 @ 3:46pm

      Re: best to let sleeping dogs lie

      This is Austrailia though. Maybe they're afraid the sleeping dingo will wake up and steal the baby...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Nastybutler77 (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 4:44pm

        Re: Re: best to let sleeping dogs lie

        Just as long as he doesn't put baby in a corner.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        RandomGuy (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 5:14pm

        Re: Re: best to let sleeping dogs lie

        Tell ya what, don't judge us for the Australian and we won't judge you for Fox News.

        Oh.. and, er, sorry about Murdoch. You guys can keep him.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2010 @ 3:32pm

    A Paraphrase Is Not A Quote

    The paraphrase shouldn't have been presented as a direct quote.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael Wyres, 3 Dec 2010 @ 4:29pm

    It has to be said that The Australian newspaper is a significantly politically right-leaning newspaper, and will find an avenue of attack on just about anything vaguely related to the current Australian government.

    It has become a very biased and self-serving news outlet, more interested in being in the news, than reporting the news.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ChimpBush McHitlerBurton, 3 Dec 2010 @ 5:46pm

    Mitchell is such a Grouch...

    Hey No Way,
    Paraphrase - what I say
    Sue your ass so what do you expect?

    Can you tell me how to get,
    How to get to Streisand Effect?

    Go away
    Lawyers will - make my day
    I'm not very smart,
    Or Circumspect...

    Can you tell me how to get,
    How to get to Streisand Effect?
    How to get to Streisand Effect?
    How to get to Streisand Effect?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    gj, 3 Dec 2010 @ 6:22pm

    I've been interviewed, and quoted, in the local media four times in the past 10 years.

    Every single time, they've managed to misquote me.

    So why the fuss? She was obviously just trying to adhere to the high standards demonstrated by her fellow journalists.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 3 Dec 2010 @ 7:03pm

    Same Newspaper

    Also the employer of this wanker.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Dec 2010 @ 7:16am

    Australia, just like the EU is turning into a Socialist Dictatorship with nothing to export. So voila suckers, who needs you. You contribute nothing and soon you will sink into the rising seas from the melting ice. Later dudes.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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