Child-Killer Doc Will Air on ABC
The Australian Broadcast Corp succeeds in it's bid to overturn a ban on the documentary, The Fisherman.
The Australian Broadcast Corp successfully overturned an injunction to ban the documentary, The Fisherman. The documentary will air on ABC on October 26th.
(Source:The Border Mail)
In 1975, James O'Neill was convicted and imprisoned for life for the murder of nine-year-old boy, Ricky John Smith, in Tasmania. In 2005, the Australian Broadcast Corp planned to air a documentary film called The Fisherman, which contends that O'Neill was implicated in the disappearance of the Beaumont children, who went missing in Adelaide in 1966. The Beaumont case is one of the most infamous unsolved cases in Australian history. But the Tasmania Court of Appeal, who issued an interlocutory injunction, alleging defamation of O'Neill's character, stopped the film from airing.
This week the Australian Broadcasting Corporation successfully appealed to the High Court to overturn the injunction. The court said they had failed to give enough weight to the significance of free speech and to the consideration that only nominal damages may be awarded if the program was found to be defamatory.
"It is an intriguing story that will no doubt fascinate Australian audiences," said Kim Dalton, ABC's Director of Television. ABC will air The Fisherman on October 26th.
