Advantage Christian Porter in the defamation trial of the century

Just who are the key players in the attorney-general's case against the ABC?

                                                    Bret Walker and Sue Chrysanthou 

The ABC took great pains not to mention Porter in its article on February 26, but that may not matter. His lawyers have pieced together website traffic, Twitter posts, Milligan’s last Four Corners episode, and interventions from Malcolm Turnbull to show Porter was identifiable.

“To establish identification, you only need to prove that it’s been identified to one person who reasonably identifies a plaintiff,” University of Sydney media law expert David Rolph said.

If Porter can establish this, the ABC and Milligan are in trouble.

“[The statement of claim is] designed to force the ABC to give up and settle, or take on the challenge of running a rape case on the balance of probabilities,” Marque Lawyers managing partner and Crikey contributor Michael Bradley said.

A truth defence, as teased in Porter’s statement of claim, would put the onus on the ABC’s lawyers to prove the imputations pleaded — that Porter brutally anally raped a 16-year-old girl in 1988 — are substantially true……

https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/03/16/christia-porter-defamation-trial-of-the-century/