Author and women’s rights activist, Clementine Ford, has launched defamation proceedings against an executive editor of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, for “damaging” public comments the editor made earlier this year.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the legal proceedings came in response to comments executive editor, Tory Maguire, provided to The Guardian in January, in which she confirmed it had been her decision to remove a recent interview article with Ford – who was promoting her new book at the time, How We Love – from Nine Entertainment publications due to her history of “vile attacks” on masthead reporters.
Ford (featured image) was previously a columnist for the Herald and The Age, but quit in 2019 after revealing in a Twitter thread she had been suspended in September 2018 for tweets in which she labelled Prime Minister Scott Morrison a “fucking disgrace”.
The controversial author announced her decision to leave the mastheads on Twitter, and claimed the publications’ new policy was to not “disrespect the office of the PM”.
“Clementine Ford spent years making vile and personal attacks on the journalists and editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after the mastheads stopped publishing her column,” Maguire’s statement to The Guardian reads.
“I had knocked back a pitch for an interview with her but there was a breakdown in communication and it was commissioned and published in error. I have pulled it from Spectrum and taken it down out of respect for my team.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Ford had filed defamation action on 8 March against Maguire and Nine Entertainment, which purchased Fairfax and its mastheads in 2018.
Ford’s lawyers – which include Rebekah Giles, who recently represented Brittany Higgins, and former attorney-general, Christian Porter, in his defamation case against ABC – said Maguire’s statements in January were likely to harm sales of their client’s new book, as well her status as a champion for women’s rights.
“An allegation that she engaged in vile attacks against other women is particularly damaging,” the statement of claim reads.
“Ford has been injured in her character and reputation, has suffered substantial hurt and embarrassment and has and will continue to suffer loss and damage.”
The statement also claims a concerns notice was sent to Maguire on 4 February, but was knocked back with a “derisive response”.
A court date has not yet been set.
