Batchelor loses defamation case against TVNZ and researcher

Summarised by Centrist

Anti-co-governance campaigner Julian Batchelor has lost his defamation case against TVNZ and Disinformation Project researcher Sanjana Hattotuwa, with the District Court finding the defendants successfully established the defences of truth, honest opinion and responsible communication.

In a reserved judgment, Judge David Clark dismissed Batchelor’s claim in full and said he should pay costs. Batchelor had sued over a 1News article published in August 2023, which reported he was under investigation over anti-co-governance pamphlets and included comments from Hattotuwa describing his rhetoric as “dangerous speech” that “incites hate” and “racist rhetoric”.

The judge found those comments were defamatory on their face, but ruled they were true, honestly held opinions, and responsibly communicated in the public interest. 

Clark wrote that Batchelor had used racist language, describing his comments as sustained, deliberate and targeted at Māori, and in many cases “highly pejorative and offensive”.

A major factual dispute in the case was whether 1News Māori Affairs correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui had interviewed Batchelor by phone before publication. 

Batchelor denied the call took place, but the judge preferred Hurihanganui’s claim, citing phone logs and text messages supporting her account.

The court also took account of Batchelor’s wider body of work, including pamphlets, blog posts, speeches, interviews, social media commentary and extracts from an unpublished book titled The Māori Agenda for New Zealand. 

The judgment noted Batchelor held 82 public meetings across New Zealand in 2023 and distributed hundreds of thousands of pamphlets as part of the Stop Co-governance campaign.

Read more over at 1News

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