For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.
The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.
For Nine newspapers – who published the stories alleging Roberts-Smith committed war crimes in Afghanistan – the ruling was a vindication of the work by journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters. It was also a relief for those responsible for the media giant’s bottom line and the reputation of its mastheads.
Lawyers for Nine have asked for several weeks to submit their application concernings costs.
Seven says Roberts-Smith remains on leave from his position as general manager of Seven Queensland – a job Stokes parachuted him into in 2015.
“Ben remains on leave and will review the judgment with us and make a decision on his future in the near future,” a Seven spokesperson said on Thursday. “We will make no further comment at this time.”
Stokes said he had not spoken to Roberts-Smith but “the judgment does not accord with the man I know”.
“I know this will be particularly hard for Ben, who has always maintained his innocence,” Stokes said on Thursday. “That his fellow soldiers have disagreed with each other, this outcome will be the source of additional grief.”
The reporters who wrote the articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Canberra Times stood triumphant on the steps of the court but chose to focus not on their hard-won victory, but rather Roberts-Smith’s victims.
Their allegations that he engaged in war crimes – including murdering civilians and ordering subordinate soldiers under his command to execute civilians in so-called “blooding” incidents – had been found to be true on the balance of probabilities.
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age journalist Nick McKenzie said “today is a day of justice” including for the “brave men of the SAS who stood up and told the truth about who Ben Roberts-Smith is: a war criminal, a bully and a liar”. pic.twitter.com/WRHAY86blH
— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) June 1, 2023
McKenzie said it was the “toughest fight of our journalistic careers”.
He said it was a “day of justice” and called for Australia to be proud of the brave soldiers who spoke to him and Masters about the crimes committed in Afghanistan.
“It’s a day of justice for those brave men of the SAS who stood up and told the truth about who Ben Roberts-Smith is: a war criminal, a bully and a liar,” McKenzie said.
With Roberts-Smith absent from the court for his day of reckoning, McKenzie said he wanted the former soldier to reflect on the pain he had caused and the “children who no longer have a father”.
“I’d like Ben Roberts-Smith to reflect on the pain that he’s brought lots of men in the SAS who have stood up and told the truth about his conduct,” he said. “Some had letters sent to them, threatening letters. I’d like Ben Roberts-Smith to reflect on the people he murdered, the man who kicked off a cliff, the Afghan villagers. That’s what I think Ben Roberts-Smith should reflect on.”
McKenzie later told ABC TV that Stokes, by financing Roberts-Smith, had “waged a huge war against investigative journalism”.
Masters thanked Nine for publishing the stories, saying that editorial decision would “go down in the history of the news business as one of the great calls”.
The veteran of countless court battles for his previous ABC investigations said it wasn’t a dark day for Australia’s armed forces but a good day for Australian soldiers who had the “physical and moral courage” to tell “the difficult truth”.
“It was 110 days of them being punished in the witness box,” Masters said. “And they did so wonderfully well, I’m so grateful to all of them.”
The media academic Dr Andrea Carson of La Trobe University said it was a monumental win for investigative journalism.
“It is a win for the fourth estate and a win for democratic accountability,” Carson said. “It shows how important journalism is as a mechanism to shine light in dark places and uncover truths that those with power want to keep hidden. Nine is to be commended for committing millions of dollars to defend and support its investigative journalists by enabling them the means to tell this important story.”
Nine’s managing director of publishing, James Chessell, said the company would continue to hold people involved in war crimes to account.
“Publishing a story of this magnitude is never easy, but high-quality investigative journalism is vital to a thriving democracy,” Chessell said. “Nine’s unequivocal backing of this reporting and our defence of it is a clear demonstration of its commitment to quality journalism.”
Justice.
— Nick McKenzie (@Ageinvestigates) June 1, 2023
The media union described the win as a “big and important win for journalism and press freedom in Australia”.
Karen Percy from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said the ruling “upholds the media’s important role in undertaking public interest investigations and in the public’s right to know”.
Homepage of The Age https://t.co/Cpwr3uPtrB pic.twitter.com/Bw5SGKPfgf
— Max Walden (@maxwalden_) June 1, 2023
With Australian Associated Press
