{"id":165474,"date":"2025-09-24T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165474\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:23:08","slug":"australian-war-memorial-updates-ben-roberts-smith-display-to-mention-recent-high-court-rejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/165474\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian War Memorial updates Ben Roberts-Smith display to mention recent High Court rejection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra has updated the wording on a display featuring Ben Roberts-Smith for a third time.<\/p>\n

What did Ben Roberts-Smith do? This is what his civil case found<\/a><\/p>\n

Justice Anthony Besanko’s full reasons for his judgement are yet to be released, but today he outlined the serious allegations Nine’s lawyers had proved the “substantial truth” of.<\/p>\n

The latest change reflects a decision by the High Court earlier this month to reject a special leave application from Mr Roberts-Smith<\/a> to challenge a Federal Court ruling against his bid to sue Nine newspapers over allegations about war crimes.<\/p>\n

Justice Anthony Besanko in 2023 ruled that the media outlets and journalists Mr Roberts-Smith had sued had established the substantial truth of many of the imputations in their reporting, including allegations of murder.<\/a><\/p>\n

The former soldier wanted to overturn that ruling but he has failed in his final legal bid.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith arrived at court in May in Sydney for his appeal against his defamation loss. (ABC News: Abubakr Sajid)<\/p>\n

The development prompted the AWM to again change an exhibit featuring Mr Roberts-Smith.<\/p>\n

The AWM exhibit’s text says:<\/p>\n

“Accounts of alleged misconduct by a small number of Australian Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan began appearing in the media from late 2016.<\/p>\n

“Claims were later heard in a civil defamation case brought by Roberts-Smith against media outlets and journalists.<\/p>\n

“In June 2023, a Federal Court Judge determined that there was substantial truth to the allegations that Roberts-Smith had been involved and complicit in unlawful killings in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

“In May 2025, a Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed his appeal.<\/p>\n

“In September 2025, the High Court of Australia refused Roberts-Smith’s application to challenge the Federal Court’s decision.<\/p>\n

“This was his final legal bid to overturn the defamation ruling.<\/p>\n

“Roberts-Smith has not been charged with any offence under criminal law.”<\/p>\n

The top of the blurb remains unchanged.<\/p>\n

It mentions that Mr Robert-Smith “was an imposing figure on the battlefield” and that the uniform exhibited was what he had worn during a 2010 assault into an Afghan village that saw him receive the Victoria Cross.<\/p>\n

‘Historical significance’\"Close<\/p>\n

The Australian War Memorial has updated its Ben Roberts-Smith display. (ABC News: Joel Wilson)<\/p>\n

In a statement, an AWM spokesperson said “the changes were made to appropriately reflect the recent High Court decision regarding Roberts-Smith’s defamation case”.<\/p>\n

“These changes to the interpretive panel add further context to Roberts-Smith’s service and legal matters,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“Collection items relating to Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, including his uniform, equipment and medals remain on display in the memorial’s galleries.<\/p>\n

“The uniform and display are of significant historical significance.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Ben Roberts-Smith with one of two portraits of himself that have been taken off display at the Australian War Memorial. (AAP: Alan Porritt)<\/p>\n

The AWM has previously removed two portraits of Mr Roberts-Smith<\/a> which it said was part of its redevelopment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra has updated the wording on a display featuring Ben Roberts-Smith for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20813,64,63,83250,2667,134,70,31861,108851,108849,108848,108850,8246,46329],"class_list":["post-165474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-afghanistan","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-roberts-smith","tag-canberra","tag-entertainment","tag-federal-court","tag-high-court","tag-kerry-packer","tag-plaque","tag-the-australian-war-memorial","tag-unlawful-killings","tag-update","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}