YouTube personality Jordan Shanks has lost a preliminary fight in the defamation case brought against him by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, after a judge found the defences of truth and honest opinion could not be relied on in part of the case because it would breach parliamentary privilege.bruzwhich were published on the Friendlyjordies channel in September and October last year. Google, which owns YouTube, is also being sued in the case.
In a preliminary hearing last month, Mr Shanks’ lawyers argued it was an abuse of process for Mr Barilaro to claim he was defamed by the suggestion he committed perjury, because Mr Shanks was unable to mount a defence without breaching parliamentary privilege and could not have a fair trial.On Friday Justice Steven Rares declined to do this, in a judgment which found Mr Shanks’ defence was defective and should be amended.
“Mr Barilaro does not seem to have caused that situation. Rather, it arose because of the way in which Mr Shanks chose to publish the“In my opinion, it is difficult to see how it is unfair that Parliamentary privilege will prevent Mr Shanks from relying on those defences. Instead, I have found that it would be unfair to deprive Mr Barilaro of the right to vindicate his reputation that Mr Shanks attacked.
gmitch_news Lost this round? Google just joined his defense.
gmitch_news The public have given Jordan over $1m in gofundme donations to fight this
gmitch_news So Barilaro can lie in parliament, sue someone, and they can't use a truth defense because the lie was said under parliamentary privilege. This smells like bullshit.