Lawyers for Geoffrey Rush in suppression order
Defamation proceedings underway will suppress further allegations against iconic actor.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
The lawsuit by actor Geoffrey Rush against the Daily Telegraph and journalist Jonathan Moran yesterday had its first day in court.
Rush is suing over two articles in November and December which kicked off with a “King Leer” headline.
He claims the newspaper depicted him as a pervert and sexual predator and that the false allegations have distressed his family and colleagues, and damaged his career prospects. Neither Rush nor Moran were in court yesterday as lawyers entered into the first hearing of the defamation proceedings.
Rush’s lawyer Richard McHugh SC told the Federal Court that the defence should not be released because it contained “rumours” which would do “further damage” to the actor’s reputation. At first he sought to have the Daily Telegraph’s defence struck out entirely.
Justice Michael Wigney agreed to protect Rush’s reputation in releasing what would have to be a heavily redacted version of the defence.
News Corp’s lawyer Lyndelle Barnett said the fact the more “scandalous” material in the defence was not published was “a touchstone of reasonableness”, and sought to argue that the stories published by the Daily Telegraph “did not make any allegations” of a sexual nature.
But McHugh said, “The use of [the] headline ‘leer’ obviously has a sexual connotation to it and the way it is photographed … makes it look like he’s been caught in some way.”
He called for the case hearing date to be moved forward to stop the actor’s reputation being damaged further. The matter returns to court on February 19th.
Source: The Guardian, ABC.