Mark Latham caused a bit of a stir in the press last week (to put it mildly). He took exception to an SMH piece by Lisa Pryor in which she admitted that anti-depressants help her manage parenthood. He launched an aggressive personal attack against her in the AFR.
Personal attacks in opinion pieces are relatively common. The question is how far a journalist can go without fear of legal reprisal.
Philosophically, if you want to have free speech then you need to accept that you'll be offended sometimes. In most cases the answer is to exercise the right of reply, rather than sue. There has been no shortage of reaction to Latham's article, including in the AFR. Hurray! Lively debate. Vibrant society. But there are (rightly) limits to this. Defamation is one of them.
Latham's article is contemptuous of Pryor, and plainly defamatory. Journalists like Latham can plead the defence of "honest opinion", which will defeat many defamation claims. But we don't think it would fly this time.
Yes, the article is an expression of his opinion and it appears to be honestly held. But that's not enough on its own. It also needs to relate to a matter of public interest and be based on substantially true material.
Public interest is a tricky concept. It's not precisely defined. The fact that Pryor published the article to which Latham responded first is probably sufficient to satisfy this element.
The real problem for Latham will be the facts underpinning his opinions. His opinions are based on some fairly obvious misconstructions of Pryor's article. He makes unfounded assumptions about the reasons for Pryor's use of antidepressants. And where Pryor refers to the 'glorious disaster' of raising kids, Latham terms it a 'nightmare' and accuses her of demonising children. An honest opinion defence would likely fail on this point.
When writing or publishing opinion pieces, it's critical to know the qualifications to the available defences. Don't overlook the public interest element and check the underlying facts carefully.
For Latham, it could end up being an expensive day at the (home) office.
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