Ben Roberts-Smith Verdict
NINE / SMH / THE AGE · AUCOURTROOM AS AD
A media company's brand campaign was a defamation verdict.
In 2018, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age allegations that Australia’s most decorated living soldier - Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith - had committed war crimes in Afghanistan. Roberts-Smith sued. His legal costs were reportedly underwritten by a rival media proprietor. The trial ran over 110 days, called 41 witnesses, and racked up more than A$25 million in legal fees.
The Federal Court found the core allegations were substantially true. The appeal was dismissed.
Nine Entertainment did not run a traditional campaign on the back of the verdict. The verdict was the campaign. The marketing pitch to subscribers across SMH and The Age was implicit and unmistakable: We risked the company to publish this. The court agreed. This is what your subscription pays for.
The ad spend was a decade of reporting. The creative brief was a judgment. In an era when most patronage pitches sold the reader an identity, this one sold them the bill - and asked them to honour it. Defiance became the most authentic acquisition channel the industry had left.