The latest Underbelly series (The Golden Mile) has to date been fantastic and also quite personal as the events happening in it occurred in streets only a little over a kilometre from my house.
One of the more interesting sideshows of this year’s series has been the ongoing attempts by a former police officer stationed at Kings Cross to sue the makers of the series for defamation. Earlier this year the case was thrown out of court because it was declared that someone could not sue for defamation before they have been defamed. However, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, now that the episodes have aired the former police officer is not pressing on with the defamation law suits.
The most interesting aspect of this whole saga is the character claiming to be defamed is a very minor character in the story and if the defamation proceedings were not being reported it is likely that very few people would care. Instead pursuing the court cases has kept the issue in the media and it would appear that through this the former police officer is indirectly defaming themself.
