Shift2Neutral Pty Ltd v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd

Shift2Neutral Pty Ltd (the appellant) appealed to the Court of Appeal of New South Wales against a decision of a trial judge who had found that imputations published by Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd (the respondent) were defamatory but that the defence of substantial truth, pursuant to section 25 of the *Defamation Act 2005* (NSW), was made out.

The central legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the trial judge had erred in upholding the defence of substantial truth and, in particular, whether the trial judge had improperly reversed the onus of proof in relation to that defence.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that the trial judge had correctly applied the principles of section 25 of the *Defamation Act 2005* (NSW). The court held that the defence of substantial truth requires the defendant to prove that the substance or "gist" of the defamatory imputation is true, not necessarily every single word. The trial judge's findings were consistent with this requirement, and there was no error in the application of the onus of proof. The court concluded that the evidence supported the trial judge's finding that the respondent had established the truth of the imputations.