Nine has publicly apologised to Dr Andrew Laming for defaming him in a 9news report.
During a 9News report, Nine falsely claimed that Dr Laming took an upskirt shot of a waitress in 2021. At the time the allegations were made, Dr Laming was a politician in the Liberal party.
Nine’s apology to Dr Laming was read out by Dr Laming’s high-profile barrister during a brief in federal court.
Laming enlisted Sue Chrysanthou, SC, to represent him. She is famous for handling the most high-profile defamation suits in the country. She has famously represented Christian Porter and Geoffrey Rush during their legal cases.
The Canberra Times has reported that Chrysanthou read out Nine’s apology and said: “9News has now seen material which indicated that the photograph Dr Laming took was not lewd in nature.
“9News unreservedly withdraws those allegations about Dr Laming and apologises to him and his family for the hurt and harm caused by the report.”
The apology from Nine comes after the company originally stood by its reporting and went with the truth defence. However, it opted to drop the defence in August and headed into mediation instead.
The rest of the suit has been settled confidentially. So, there is no word about the settlement Dr Laming got from Nine.
The Canberra Times also reported that in reaction to Nine’s apology, Dr Laming said: “It is highly commendable that (Nine) like many senior political and media figures previously, have agreed to right wrongs and apologise when presented with the facts.
“Australians can remain proud of our free press that requires the media to report matters of public interest in a fair and balanced way, and when mistakes are made, as they were in my case, correct the record and apologise.”
Interestingly, ABC Journalist, Louise Milligan agreed to pay Dr Laming $70,000 in damages, plus his legal costs, after she posted a series of tweets also alleging Dr Laming took an ‘upskirt’ shot of the same woman.
According to reports, Milligan’s employer, ABC, wasn’t sued by Laming but ended up footing the bill on Milligan’s behalf.
Since the allegations were made, Laming has stepped away from politics.
