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China critic and former SBS journalist battle over Twitter statement in defamation case

Lane SaintyNCA NewsWire
An outspoken China critic is being sued by a journalist for defamation. NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar
Camera IconAn outspoken China critic is being sued by a journalist for defamation. NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar Credit: NCA NewsWire

An outspoken China critic and a former SBS journalist remain locked in battle over whether a Twitter statement should be published as an image or a thread, despite having reached an ostensible settlement in their defamation case.

Marcus Reubenstein, who runs the website APAC News, was also warned in court by opposing barristers that his “intemperate” tweets might torpedo the agreement altogether.

The journalist is suing Geoffrey Wade, a researcher in the federal parliamentary library and prolific tweeter about China, for defamation and copyright infringement.

Mr Reubenstein alleges Mr Wade falsely portrayed him as a “mouthpiece” for the Chinese Communist Party who engaged in unlawful foreign interference and whose website reports fake news.

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He is also suing the Commonwealth, alleging it is vicariously liable for Mr Wade’s alleged defamation and copyright violations because he was tweeting while at work.

Mr Reubenstein’s barrister Wen Wu told the Federal Court on Friday morning a mediation on September 29 had been “successful”.

But, the court heard, things had since gone awry.

Mr Wu said the parties had reached a confidential settlement and Mr Wade was now trying to change its terms.

But Mr Wade’s barrister Anthony Morris said it was in fact Mr Reubenstein who was “reneging on what was agreed”.

Mr Morris said Mr Reubenstein had agreed to post a message on his website and on his Twitter profile as part of the settlement.

“The proposal now coming from Mr Reubenstein is that rather than posting a message on his website he will simply post a link on his website to a message located somewhere else,” Mr Morris said.

“That’s not acceptable.

“Again, rather than posting a message on Twitter, his proposal is to post an image of a message, and without going into technical details, the difference between image and the actual text is that the text contained in an image is not searchable.”

Mr Wu said the agreement did not “go into that level of detail” and the specific objections were “news to me”.

Barrister Clarissa Amato said the Commonwealth “doesn’t take a position on the differences that have arisen between Mr Wade and Mr Reubenstein”.

But, Ms Amato said, she was concerned about Mr Reubenstein’s “intemperate” tweets in recent days.

She said it was “arguable” the online posts breached the agreement struck and told Justice Michael Lee the conduct “ought to stop”.

“It may be that sort of conduct either constitutes a breach of the agreement or stands in the way of proceedings being finalised,” she said.

Mr Morris then added that in his view the tweets were “inconsistent” with the terms of the settlement and, depending on what Mr Wade wanted to do, could lead to the “repudiation” of the deal.

Justice Lee asked the parties to try to sort out their differences, saying if they remained “at loggerheads” by the end of next week, he could rule on the matter.

He said the hearing had confirmed his long-held view that it was “much better to stay in a mediation until everything is signed”.

The case returns to court on October 22.

Originally published as China critic and former SBS journalist battle over Twitter statement in defamation case

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