National broadcaster to pay politician $79,000 in defamation settlement

ABC journalist Louise Milligan has agreed to pay $79,000 to Queensland politician Andrew Laming as a settlement in a defamation case

The member for Bowman, who will quit politics at the next election, sued the Four Corners reporter over a series of tweets she posted earlier this year.

It follows Mr Laming battling allegations of harassment.

The Federal Court was told Ms Milligan had agreed to judgment in Mr Laming’s favour.

Milligan agreed to pay Dr Laming $79,000 with further costs yet to be confirmed. 

The ABC will foot the bill for the $79,000 payout, as well as court costs for both sides.

“My case is an example of how a false allegation can be quickly and widely disseminated over social media by persons who have no direct/personal knowledge of what actually happened,”  Dr Laming said in a statement.

“Resolving the claim avoids a potentially protracted and costly legal action,” the statement from the broadcaster said.

“In March, Ms Milligan in good faith published several Twitter posts regarding Dr Laming. One of those posts contained an honest error that had been widely reported by numerous other journalists and politicians on social and mass media.

“The ABC is not aware of legal proceedings in relation to statements or reporting by others.

“The error concerned the circumstances in which Dr Laming took a photograph.”