Van Onselen loses Network Ten contract breach lawsuit

afr.com:

Former Network Ten political editor Peter van Onselen has lost a contract breach lawsuit against his former employer over a scathing column he wrote in The Australian.

“I am persuaded that the article is a one-off mistake,” NSW Supreme Court Justice David Hammerschlag said in his judgment on Friday.

Peter van Onselen hast lost his breach of contract case against Network Ten Alex Ellinghausen

“The making of a declaration is, in the particular circumstances of this case, sufficient assuagement for Ten of its grievance.”

Dr van Onselen quit his position in March and signed an agreement not to disparage the network or its US-based owner Paramount, in exchange for a $71,000 redundancy payout.

The network sued the political commentator and academic over the column in The Australian months later, questioning Paramount’s plummeting share price and referring to the network as “the minnow of Australian commercial television.”

Zooming into his hearing last month from the Italian Amalfi coast, Dr van Onselen said he did not read the non-disparagement clause in his redundancy contract after being reassured by Paramount human resources executive Anthony McDonald he could disparage Ten in various circumstances.

“I used the phrase ‘If the CEO was caught f***ing a goat and the rest of the media was piling on then surely I would not be precluded from doing the same’,” Dr van Onselen told the court.

“I remember Mr McDonald being reassuring and saying something to the effect of ‘of course, hopefully it won’t come to that’.”

Mr McDonald told the court the conversation did not happen.

Ten’s counsel Arthur Moses SC questioned the commentator about the phone call, saying he was using a “fabricated” memory to “get away from the impact of the