\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence to support the submission that Mr Grenon has assumed control of these proceedings or that the cause of action has been assigned.\u201d<\/p>\n
Julian Batchelor speaks at an anti-co-governance meeting in 2023.<\/p>\n
Judge David Clark has reserved his decision following a four-day civil hearing in the Auckland District Court. He indicated he would deliver a decision after the Christmas break.<\/p>\n
Subject to that decision, lawyers for TVNZ and academic Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa believe they have a case for indemnity costs for what they say is a matter that should never have made it to court.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething seriously rotten sat behind this claim,\u201d said Davey Salmon KC, in his closing submission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is not a case for indemnity costs, then respectfully, what is? Billionaires should not be allowed to play with litigation behind a cloak of invisibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story<\/p>\n
Batchelor is suing TVNZ and Hattotuwa for a 1 News website article in August 2023, focused on a \u2018stop co-governance\u2019 pamphlet distributed by Batchelor.<\/p>\n
The article quoted Hattotuwa, then a research director for The Disinformation Project, as saying: \u201cIt is what you would call dangerous speech. It incites hate, and it instigates harm offline. This is racist rhetoric. This is colonialism\u2019s long shadow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Batchelor said his reputation was harmed by what Hague described today as \u201cserious allegations\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Stop Co-Governance pamphlet which was the centre of focus of a TVNZ story in August 2023.<\/p>\n
TVNZ and Hattotuwa are defending their actions on several points of defamation law, including honest opinion, truth and responsible communication in the public interest.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the trial, and under cross-examination, Batchelor revealed that his legal costs were being funded by Grenon, who is a shareholder and director of NZ Herald publisher NZME.<\/p>\n
Batchelor told the court that Grenon had called him after seeing the TVNZ story, offering his help. Batchelor later met him at Grenon\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Batchelor told the court that Grenon said to him, \u201cI\u2019ve been following you, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re a racist. I think we should sue TVNZ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Businessman and NZME director and shareholder Jim Grenon. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
In court today, Salmon asserted that, \u201cMr Grenon kept his involvement secret from this court\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that is bad, and it is an abuse, and I don\u2019t say that lightly at all.\u201d <\/p>\n
Judge Clark said Grenon had not been in court, and his side of the story was not known. <\/p>\n
In terms of natural justice, both the judge and Salmon said Grenon had a right to be heard. <\/p>\n
\u2018A bad state of affairs\u2019<\/p>\n
Salmon opened his closing address by outlining \u201ca bad state of affairs\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bad substantively. It\u2019s bad procedurally in the sense that the case appears to be an abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Salmon said it was \u201cabundantly clear\u201d that Batchelor had not planned to sue. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really his idea. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese weren\u2019t his targets, and we can see that he\u2019s not the guy who was naturally suing other people for things. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had been called terrible things by others and didn\u2019t care. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was barely across key aspects of his own case. He didn\u2019t know whether he\u2019d ever paid the lawyer anything, but Mr Grenon was paying for all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described the case as \u201ca Trojan Horse for someone else to have a tilt at the state broadcaster and an academic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would Mr Grenon do this? We don\u2019t know. He needs natural justice and a chance to be heard on that. <\/p>\n
\u201cWere there ulterior motives that need to be investigated? We don\u2019t know – natural justice again. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do know here is that this has been a tortious claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grenon is travelling overseas and declined to comment to the Herald earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Batchelor\u2019s position<\/p>\n
Matthew Hague, acting for Batchelor, said today his client accepted and had given evidence that he received support from Grenon.<\/p>\n
However, he said it was Batchelor who had wanted to take legal action.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Batchelor said, \u2018I was shocked by the article. I was very hurt by it.\u2019 This confirms Mr Batchelor\u2019s motivation to sue. I don\u2019t think there can be any question about Mr Batchelor\u2019s desire to bring these proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was personal, albeit shared, but it was not imposed, and it was not abdicated to Mr Grenon.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave evidence that Mr Grenon, in his words, was picking up the bills, but Mr Batchelor also gave evidence that he had paid for part of the matter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no detail about what parts, but Mr Batchelor\u2019s clear evidence was that there were some parts that he paid for, so it wasn\u2019t entirely paid by Mr Grenon.\u201d <\/p>\n
Judge Clark said there were various scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an interpretation which can go from one end of the spectrum, which is that these proceedings, in terms of the claim, were controlled and conducted by a third-party funder, which falls outside the auspices of this court. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s just a hard no – that should never happen. <\/p>\n
\u201cThrough to there\u2019s a person who just wants to help with the litigation because they generally feel that this is a person who has been grievously wronged by the defendants and can\u2019t afford the cost of a lawyer, and is prepared to help. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we land on that, I just don\u2019t know. I\u2019m slightly uncomfortable about where we try to land on it at this early stage because one, I haven\u2019t made a decision in the case, and two, the funder himself has not been heard in this court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve heard someone say this person is funding it. We haven\u2019t heard from him saying, \u2018Well, hang on. It\u2019s not quite right.\u2019… or, \u2018Yes, it\u2019s absolutely right, but I still don\u2019t think I\u2019ve done anything wrong here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salmon also criticised the way that Batchelor had refused to reveal during the trial the names of the key funders of the pamphlet.<\/p>\n
During the hearing the judge considered several options, including taking an adverse inference out of Batchelor\u2019s refusal, holding him in contempt, or striking out the proceeding. <\/p>\n
He rejected the latter two options as draconian at that stage of the trial. <\/p>\n
The defamation case <\/p>\n
Lawyers Davey Salmon KC (left) and Daniel Nilsson. File photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
The lawyers for TVNZ and Hattotuwa said their defence on the principles of truth, responsible communication in the public interest and honest opinion were all made out.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Daniel Nilsson defended TVNZ\u2019s story, saying it was an illustration of good public-interest journalism. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have been here in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the article was carefully written and balanced and did not accuse Batchelor of being racist. It focused on his rhetoric and statements, not a direct attack on his character.<\/p>\n
He said TVNZ\u2019s M\u0101ori Affairs correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui, was \u201cclear, calm and compelling\u201d on the witness stand; Batchelor, he said, was \u201ccombative\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, Hague argued that the sentence devoted to Batchelor\u2019s denial in the article was \u201cbland\u201d and \u201cinadequate\u201d, and lacked detail and nuance.<\/p>\n
Former TVNZ presenter Peter Williams and (inset) anti-co-governance campaigner Julian Batchelor. Photos \/ TVNZ, NZME<\/p>\n
An expert witness for Batchelor, former TVNZ host Peter Williams, earlier testified that Hattotuwa\u2019s comments took up more than 200 words in the 600-word article; Batchelor\u2019s position was outlined in 10 words.<\/p>\n
Hague said his client did not recall the reporter putting to him any of the specific claims and assertions made by Hattotuwa. <\/p>\n
He said the reporter also should have sent to Batchelor a document that Hattotuwa had written in which he outlined his concerns about Batchelor\u2019s position and comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tone of the article was unbalanced. It presented Dr Hattotuwa\u2019s assertions as authoritative conclusions, whereas the plaintiff was framed as being under investigation [by the Electoral Commission]. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is in the context as well of the word \u2018unfounded\u2019 to describe the plaintiff\u2019s political views in the pamphlet. All of this tone was weighted against Mr Batchelor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence to support the submission that Mr Grenon has assumed control of these proceedings or that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9092,95,51,117616,6255,1121,2741,8615,1349,23948,7557,738,26265,118712,78,2936,16081,24560,1073,111,43,139,69,21674,13172,427,6445,8238,3114],"class_list":["post-189594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-against","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-batchelor","tag-businessman","tag-case","tag-claim","tag-come","tag-court","tag-defamation","tag-district","tag-funding","tag-grenon","tag-grenons","tag-in","tag-insider","tag-jim","tag-julian","tag-media","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-scrutiny","tag-spotlight","tag-story","tag-tvnz","tag-under","tag-website"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}