Australian Man Awarded Damages For BBS Libel 04/04/94
 
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1994 APR 4 (NB) -- In what is claimed to be the
first successful Australian defamation action over an electronic
message, a man was awarded $40,000 damages last Thursday. Judge
David Ipp, sitting in the Supreme Court Of Western Australia, found
that Dr David Rindos had been the subject of a damaging message
placed by Gilbert Hardwick.
 
The story was first reported in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Rindos was acting head of the department of anthropology at the
University of Western Australia at the time. He was seeking to get
tenure at the University.
 
Hardwick, meanwhile, was an anthropologist working in the Kimberley
region of Western Australia -- he posted a message on the DIALx
science anthropology net which reaches around 23,000 users
worldwide. The message included allegations that the University's
anthropology department supported Aboriginal land rights against
mining companies, which Newsbytes notes is the subject of an ongoing
political campaign.
 
Judge Ipp said that he accepted that Hardwick's comments "give rise
to an imputation that the plaintiff [Rindos] engaged in sexual
misconduct with a `local boy.'"
 
"I also accept that the message contains the imputation that the
plaintiff's professional career and reputation has not been based on
appropriate academic research but on `his ability to berate and
bully all and sundry.'" Judge Ipp said.
 
Judge Ipp concluded that the message seriously denigrated Rindos'
academic competence and, because the message was effectively posted
around the world, it was likely to be repeated and become linked-to,
and reinforce any similar rumours that may circulate.
 
[ portions here dealing with Rindos's tenure battle deleted ]
 
Copyright (c) 1994 Newsbytes News Network