Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd v Cross

Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd (the applicant) sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal. The dispute concerned the publication of an article by Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd in The Courier-Mail newspaper, which the respondent, Mr. Cross, alleged was defamatory. Mr. Cross had been a witness in a criminal trial and the article, published after the trial, referred to him in a manner that he contended conveyed defamatory imputations.

The High Court was required to determine whether the Queensland Court of Appeal had erred in finding that the article was capable of bearing a defamatory meaning. Specifically, the court considered whether the ordinary reasonable reader of the newspaper would understand the article to impute to Mr. Cross that he had lied in court or had been guilty of perjury. The central legal issue was the proper construction of the newspaper article and the inferences that could reasonably be drawn from its text by the intended audience.

The High Court granted special leave to appeal and, after hearing argument, allowed the appeal. Their Honours found that the Queensland Court of Appeal had erred in its construction of the article. The majority reasoned that the ordinary reasonable reader, in the context of the article as a whole, would not have understood the publication to convey the defamatory imputations alleged by Mr. Cross. The article, when read fairly and without a predisposition to find defamatory meaning, did not support the inference that Mr. Cross had lied or committed perjury. The court emphasised that a defamatory imputation must be one that is reasonably open on the words used, not one that is merely possible or far-fetched. The appeal was allowed, and the judgment of the Queensland Court of Appeal was set aside.