Nine has broadcast its 60 Minutes investigation into a prominent cosmetic surgeon on Thursday night after Dr Joseph Ajaka lost his second legal attempt to have the program hand over draft copies before it aired.
The New South Wales supreme court dismissed a second application from Ajaka for Nine Entertainment to hand over copies of its investigation by the award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson.
The executive editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, Tory Maguire, said the media organisation looked forward to publishing the story in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age and broadcasting it on a special episode of 60 Minutes.
“We’re very pleased with this afternoon’s judgement in the supreme court dismissing this unorthodox and concerning attempt to curb press freedom,” Maguire said.
“Adele’s story is important public interest journalism and Australians deserve to know the findings of her investigation.”
In a brief hearing on Thursday, justice Stephen Rothman handed down his decision and ordered Ajaka pay Nine’s costs. The court has not yet published the reasons.
It followed Wednesday’s judgement by the NSW court of appeal that the supreme court did not have power to make its initial document discovery order on 13 May which said 60 Minutes should hand over a draft copy of the story.
Chief justice Andrew Bell said that legal counsel for Ajaka had conceded the orders “made by justice Rothman on the afternoon of 13th May 2022 were not sustained by any jurisdiction in the court. Those orders must therefore be set aside”.
Bell said “no such power, jurisdiction or authority” for “preliminary discovery against a party or parties who were already defendants to proceedings” existed in law.
Ajaka immediately lodged a second application after the first one was thrown out.
Last month Ajaka won a court order at the eleventh hour preventing the broadcast of the program and the publication of any subsequent articles in the Nine papers.
On Thursday Ajaka said the court action “was never about freedom of speech – it was about being treated fairly by Australia’s largest mass media organisation”.
“We were asked general questions by Adele Ferguson who later refused to provide specifics of any allegations she intended to publish,” Ajaka said.
“We are disappointed by the court’s judgment who found against us on procedural grounds.”
