Three professional athletes have been granted a court order barring the ABC from publishing a story, detailing group chat messages which shared “crude descriptions of sexual acts and domestic violence”.
The Age reports the trio of sportsmen, who cannot be identified but are described as “highly credentialed in their sport”, went to the NSW Supreme Court after an ex-partner of one of the men leaked the messages to an ABC journalist.
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A temporary order has been granted, forbidding the ABC from publishing the messages or mentioning their identities, occupation or employer on the grounds they were obtained via a breach of confidence.
“The ABC stands by the conduct of its journalists acting in the public interest,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
“The ABC is also concerned about the broader ramifications this decision may have on investigative journalism and the public’s right to know.”
Justice Anthony McGrath said the court needed to consider whether the way the messages were obtained was “improper” or “reprehensible”.
The messages “principally contain shared jokes, insults of named other people known to AB, CD and EF (the athletes) in their sport and crude descriptions of sexual acts and domestic violence”.
Two of the men are married with children, with one of those men holding “many high-profile ambassador roles, commercial sponsorship arrangements and media roles”.
He told the court his messages “will be devastating to the important work that he performs as an advocate within and outside his sport”, and all three men said the messages were “likely to lead to serious harm to their reputations and standing as well as their financial interests”.
The men conceded they could be in breach of their club contracts and could face punishment from their sport’s governing body for bringing the game into disrepute.
The ABC building in Ultimo, Sydney pictured in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource: News Corp Australia
The court heard the ABC obtained the messages when the ex-partner – referred to as GH – of one of the men in the group chat took a photograph of the messages while they were together. GH then felt a “strong moral obligation” to speak up about the messages after an “acrimonious” end to the relationship with the athlete.
“GH later said she found her partner’s old mobile phone in a moving box after their relationship had ended, which she used to show (ABC reporter Marnie) Vinall messages in the group chat,” the report states.
“She claimed that her partner, referred to as AB, had previously given her his phone password. AB denied doing this, and told the court that he was ‘horrified’ to find that his former partner had possession of the old phone.”
GH also took the messages to an executive at her former partner’s club and threatened to release it unless he was stopped from playing, with the club telling GH they considered the matter closed.
Through her reporting Vinall contacted the athletes, their clubs and the sport’s governing body which triggered the players suing her and the broadcaster for breach of confidence.
Justice McGrath granted an interim order stopping the messages from being published last week, writing “there is no urgent news need in the public interest for the ABC to publish any story about the text messages”, and that “the information contained in the Group Chat messages are not so trivial to constitute ‘tittle-tattle’.”
“The evidence suggests that the text messages in the group chat are the private thoughts of the plaintiffs (in some instances expressed in vulgar and offensive terms), shared with each other and not beyond, and were never intended by the plaintiffs to be made public,” McGrath ruled.
A final hearing may not take place for several months, until which the injunction is expected to remain in place.