WIN TV in defamation case

WIN Television is being sued by a former local mayor from Shellharbour City Council in regional New South Wales.

Michele Greig told the Supreme Court she was was distraught and unable to speak to anyone after a TV news broadcast suggested she was being investigated for corruption.

“The word just ate into me, that word corruption,” Mrs Greig said.

“I felt sick, I couldn’t talk to anybody. It was the most traumatic word I could ever imagine being called.”

Mrs Greig is suing defamation after it broadcast the story on its Wollongong evening news on March 28, 2007. A transcript was also published on the network’s website, claims the Ilawarra Mercury.

The story stated that Mrs Greig had been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over a meeting she had had with a private communications company representative and her acceptance of Blackberry devices while she was overseeing a plan to upgrade councillors’ technology.

Mrs Greig was in Italy with her husband when a family member phoned and told them: “The news rubbished Mum.”

“… I was absolutely distraught to think that people were thinking that I could do something dishonest, because that’s not how I’ve been brought up,” Mrs Greig said.

Mrs Greig’s solicitor Michael Gamble wrote to WIN TV on three occasions requesting an apology and correction, the court heard.

None was received and the story had not been removed from WIN’s website.

Lawyers for WIN TV will focus their defence on proving that Mrs Greig’s conduct in relation to Telstra and the council technology upgrade warranted a code of conduct investigation.

Full story / photo: Illawarra Mercury

NB: Guys, comments will re-open after legal proceedings conclude….