A couple in Sydney was sued for defamation in April 2016. This is according to The Sydney Morning Herald, a site that offers news online. The individual who sued the couple claimed that he saw negative comments on the community’s social media page hence mounting legal fees against the couple (Hall, 2016). After payment of the fee, the couple, Matthew and Annette Palmer, had thought that they were already through with the case only for it to reappear within a short while. This happened after a public apology to Nader, the complainant, was deleted from the community’s Facebook page.
After the court’s investigation of the case, it was found that the administrator was responsible for the deletion of the apology. However, it was later found out that Mr. Palmer also removed the apology after the administrator reposted it. This made Mr. Nader report the matter to the court claiming that it was perjury. However, the court dismissed the case claiming that Mr. Palmer had facts and hence no case to answer in relation to perjury.
In July 2015, posters that contained Mr. Nader Mohareb’s picture were distributed in Scotland Island public places. The headline was “Attention Island Residents” accusing Mr. Nader of being highly excitable and agitated. The posters identified him as an Egyptian-born who was a threat to both men and women. It also claimed that the police had knowledge of him. During this time, Mr. Palmer posted on the Scotland Island Community Facebook page suggesting that Mr. Mohareb could be related to Satan. On realizing this, Mohareb took the action of suing Palmer over defamation. He claimed that the posts were not true since they revealed him as a mentally unstable man who was not fit for this community (Hall, 2016).
References
Hall, L. (2016, April 4). Australian couple face $80,000 legal bill after Facebook defamation case. The Sydney Morning Herald.Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/nsw/australian-couple-plead-bankruptcy-by-legal-bills-after- facebook-defamation-case-20160420-goauyw.html