Morrison Claims Waleed Aly Defamatory
In the wake of the Christchurch attack, one of the more sober comments came from Waleed Aly, who on Channel 10’s The Project called for unity and an end to race-baiting politics.
In his speech, Aly made reference to an 8-year old Sydney Morning Herald article which claimed Scott Morrison had urged the Coalition to win votes by whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.
Morrison was quick to call Aly’s comments a lie and his press secretary to describe them as defamatory.
While Morrison has since stated he has no plan on suing Aly, the use of the term ‘defamatory’ has raised the issue of whether a politician should be taking a journalist to court. To discuss the issue, I’m joined by Michael Douglas, Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Western Australia.
You can find Mr Douglas’ writing on the subject at The Conversation.
