by Sally Layson | Mar 15, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Media Article
One of the hallmarks of a free society is the right to protest – to assemble in public and express a point of view.In democracies such as ours, that right extends to everyone – even those with a tenuous grip on reality.But there is an important caveat: this freedom,...
by Chris Merritt | Feb 23, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Freedom of Speech, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
There is only one thing worse than having no law to address criminal conduct, and that is having a law that is not enforced.This has the perverse effect of encouraging the very conduct that should have been suppressed, while destroying public confidence in one of the...
by Chris Merritt | Oct 13, 2023 | Chris Merritt, Freedom of Speech, Media Article
Those who wanted to hold a second anti-Israel rally in the streets of Sydney must be terribly disappointed. They have been denied permission to lawfully assemble and exercise their right to free speech. But for all true supporters of human rights, this is cause for...
by Chris Merritt | Aug 25, 2023 | Chris Merritt, Freedom of Speech, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
Thanks to the government of Bob Hawke, there can no longer be any debate about whether this country is entirely sovereign, legally independent and completely decolonised. This reality is difficult to reconcile with a plan by one of the nation’s leading law schools to...
by Chris Merritt | Jul 28, 2023 | Chris Merritt, Freedom of Speech, Media Article
There is really only one issue to look for next week when Walter Sofronoff gives the government of the ACT the report of his inquiry into the disastrous Brittany Higgins rape trial. Will anyone take the fall for the now abandoned rape prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann?...
by Chris Merritt | Feb 17, 2023 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, Defamation, Freedom of Speech, Media Article
On February 7 The Australian Financial Review lost a defamation case. Some saw it as an attack on journalism. This seems to be how it was viewed by Michael Stutchbury, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. He said the loss “highlights how Australia’s defamation laws pose a...