A British tourist who was acquitted of assaulting Australia’s former Rugby Sevens captain James Stannard has won a defamation case against a TV network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam Oliver, from Newcastle, said Australia’s Nine Network had wrongly depicted him as being guilty of a “cowardly” criminal act in Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was found not guilty last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, a judge rejected Nine’s argument that its news report of the verdict was fair – ordering it to pay Mr Oliver A$100,000 (\u00a354,000; $70,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The news report had described the incident as “a coward punch that ended the career” of Mr Stannard. It was introduced with the words “no penalty”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nine argued in court that it was a fair report and an expression of opinion relating to a matter of public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Judge Michael Lee ruled that it had wrongly portrayed Mr Oliver as a coward who had punched a defenceless man and ruined his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nine, one of Australia’s biggest networks, said it was “disappointed” and would consider an appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Oliver told the BBC last year that local media had portrayed him as a thug following the unprovoked fight.ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said Mr Stannard threw the first punch, giving him a black eye, and he had instinctively hit back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It was tough to deal with, seeing my name get dragged through the mud,”<\/a> he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His lawyers had sought over A$250,000 in damages, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judge Lee said the use of the term “coward punch” had conveyed a particular meaning that the puncher was “not only committing a violent act but also, distinctly, is contemptibly lacking the courage to act in a proper or fair way”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Stannard was treated for a fractured skull after the incident and retired from rugby last June. A British tourist who was acquitted of assaulting Australia’s former Rugby Sevens captain James Stannard has won a defamation case against a TV network. Sam Oliver, from Newcastle, said Australia’s Nine Network had wrongly depicted him as being guilty of a “cowardly” criminal act in Sydney. He was found not guilty last year. On Friday, a judge rejected Nine’s argument… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3510,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3509\/revisions\/3510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Name dragged through mud’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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