Alan Jones suing SBS for defamation over segment on The Feed

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Veteran radio and television broadcaster Alan Jones is suing public broadcaster SBS for defamation over a television segment which he claims greatly injured his reputation by wrongly portraying him as a racist, a misogynist and a liar. On the day of his retirement announcement, SBS program

The Feed broadcast a tribute in which presenter Alex Lee said Jones made a career out of bullying people gleefully used racial slurs and spread lies and fake news. He secretly took money from companies to spruik their products on air, was arrested once, and sued for defamation more times than I can count. Oh, and he was on the radio for a bit.

The episode was later published online on catch-up platform SBS On Demand, and on various social media pages.

In documents filed in the Federal Court last week, barristers Sue Chrysanthou SC and Kieran Smark SC argue the broadcast conveyed ten defamatory imputations about Jones, including that he achieved his success as a broadcaster by habitually seeking to intimidate vulnerable people.

The barristers argue the broadcast wrongly suggested that Jones sought to incite racial violence in the week leading up to the Cronulla riots was a racist for criticising Muslims and Aboriginal people was a misogynist for seeking out female politicians for criticism, and was a liar in that he lied to the public about climate change.

It is also argued the broadcast wrongly suggested Jones was a paedophile, took money from companies to promote their products on air and was a hypocrite for choosing to isolate in his country estate despite repeatedly seeking to undermine risks posed by covid-19.

The barristers say in the document, the applicant has been greatly injured in his business, personal and professional reputation and has been and will be brought into public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt.

Jones is seeking damages including aggravated damages, an order permanently restraining SBS and Ms Lee from repeating the claims, an order that the material be taken down, and costs. His lawyers have argued the segment was presented in an over sensationalised manner indicating intent to injure.

It is alleged SBS did not make any inquiries with Jones prior to publication in circumstances where the nature of the material being the making of seriously defamatory statements alleging criminality ... were such that the allegations should have been put to the applicant so that he could respond to and deny the allegations. The sensational nature of the allegations was such as to make it likely that those allegations would be republished in other media, Jones' barristers say. SBS has not yet filed any documents in the case.