Erin Molan and the beast of contextual truth

• Published date: 14 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Libel & Defamation
• Law Firm: Rostron Carlyle Rojas
• Author: Mr Michael Finch
• topic: Civil Procedure

The Daily Mail has been successful in appealing an earlier decision of Justice Bromwich, in the Federal Court case of Dailymail.com Australia Pty Ltd v Erin Molan [2023] FCAFC 26. The appeal follows the earlier judgment in Molan v Dailymail.com Australia Pty Ltd [2022] FCA 1004, where the famed television Erin Molan was initially successful in a claim for defamation against the Daily Mail for calling her, amongst other things, a racist. Ms. Molan was awarded $150,000 in damages after Justice Bromwich determined that the most serious imputation, that Ms Molan was a racist, did not carry. The result of the appeal is that the matter will now be retried before the Court.

The publications in question were an article published on 5 June 2020 on the Dailymail.com.au website, and two separate tweets published on 5 June 2020 and 6 June 2020 by the Daily Mail on Twitter. The article and the tweets made a number of claims about words that were spoken by Erin Molan during an episode of the Continuous Call Team program on the Sydney radio show 2GB.

Following the publication of the article and tweets, Ms. Molan then commenced proceedings against the Daily Mail, alleging that the publication of the article and the tweets defamed her, in that they implied that she is disrespectful in that she deliberately mocks the names of Pacific...