Former Labor leader turned Sky News host turned YouTuber, Mark Latham, is being sued for defamation by the political editor of Junkee, Osman Faruqi, over comments Latham made suggesting Faruqi's tweets encouraged terrorism.
BuzzFeed News can reveal the case was filed in the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday against Latham seeking damages for comments made about Faruqi on Latham's YouTube show.
In August, BuzzFeed News reported that Latham had been sent a legal letter by Maurice Blackburn, the law firm representing Faruqi, over an August 2 episode of YouTube show Mark Latham's Outsiders, in which the former Labor leader turned Liberal Democrat member editorialised about "anti-white racism".
In his show, Latham took issue with tweets between Faruqi and Muslim writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, in which the pair were joking in response to Greens senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters resigning from parliament after discovering they were dual citizens.
On the show, Latham said:
Anyone out there on the left of politics in particular that is fermenting hatred of white people, the rise of anti-white racism in Australia, and also those fermenting the idea of an Islamic master race in Australia, they are aiding and abetting Islamic terrorism. They are giving encouragement and succour to the terrorist fanatics who want to kill innocent people in this country.
So we need to change for the better the Australian political environment and stamp out any suggestion of racism and generating hatred towards white people. There was an instance of this earlier in the week, a guy called Osman Faruqi, here's the tweet that he put out. He was referring to the circumstance where in the Greens, the two senators Ludlam and Waters had been rubbed out under the constitution.
His mate Yassmin Abdel-Magied, we know her well, was asking what's going on and Osman replies, "the white people are getting effed Yas, it's happening". He's talking about white people in the Green party. This guy was a Green party staffer, he writes and leads up the Junkee website, a left wing website and that's his attitude, "the white people are getting effed Yas, it's happening". He's celebrating anti-white racism in Australia and Abdel-Magied now in London, thankfully, replies with a smart alec comment about going back to where they came from. This type of anti-white racism is totally unacceptable.
The Daily Mail wrote up Latham's comments, but later edited the article to state it was not implying that Faruqi or Abdel-Magied were responsible for Latham's comments. Faruqi had sent concerns letters — the first step in Australian defamation proceedings, allowing parties to resolve the dispute before taking it to court — to Latham, Daily Mail, and Canadian right wing media company Rebel Media, which hosts the Mark Latham Outsiders website, but has only filed a case against Latham.
Latham did not respond to the letter of concerns from Faruqi, though he did refer to it on Twitter recently as part of a list of concerns letters he had received from other journalists or hosts including Kristina Keneally, Wendy Harmer, Peter van Onselen and Tracey Spicer.
Aren't journalists supposed to be against defamation? 2017 legal threat letters sent by Keneally, Harmer, Faruqi, PVO and now @TraceySpicer
According to the statement of claim filed as part of the lawsuit, Faruqi alleges that Latham claimed Faruqi "knowingly assists terrorist fanatics who want to kill innocent people in Australia", "condones the murder of innocent people by Islamic terrorists", and "encourages and facilitates terrorism."
Faruqi claims his character and reputation have been "gravely injured" as a result of the allegations, and is seeking damages including aggravated damages, costs, and for Latham to be restrained from publishing similar allegations in the future.
Josh Bornstein, head of Maurice Blackburn’s Employment and Industrial Law team, is representing Faruqi in the case, and told BuzzFeed News in a statement that the firm was seeking to get the matter resolved as soon as possible.
“The statements made with reference to our client we believe are of a very serious and defamatory nature, and we have now filed proceedings on our client’s behalf in seeking to have this matter addressed and resolved as soon as possible.”