Dow Jones Agrees Settlement In Cross-Border Internet Defamation Case

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

17 November 2004

It emerged last week that Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires has reached a settlement with Australian mining magnate Joe Gutnick, in a precedent-setting cross-border internet defamation case.

In a Dow Jones article published in Barron's magazine and online in October 2000, Mr Gutnick was portrayed as something of a shady character, involved in stock scams, fraudulent activity, and money laundering.

The US publisher argued that the defamation case subsequently brought by the mining boss should be heard in the United States, which is traditionally more lenient on publishers, because the article was originally published there.

However, in a move likely to have implications for all future cases of this kind, Australia's High Court ruled that the case should be heard in Mr Gutnick's home state of Victoria, as due to its publication online, the article could have been read there too.

According to an Associated Press report on the settlement, in addition to paying $137,000 in compensation and $306,000 in legal fees, Dow Jones issued a statement to be read in Victoria's Supreme Court retracting certain allegations made in the offending article.

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