Former federal attorney-general Christian Porter has discontinued his defamation action against the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan.
The move follows a mediation session between the parties, which came after the Federal Court barred Mr Porter's lawyer, defamation expert Sue Crysanthou, from acting for him because she had previously acted for someone connected to his alleged rape victim.
The ABC has published a clarification on the article that started the furore.
The clarification says: "On 26 February 2021, the ABC published an article by Louise Milligan.That article was about a letter to the Prime Minister containing allegations against a senior cabinet minister. Although he was not named, the article was about the Attorney-General Christian Porter. The ABC did not intend to suggest that Mr Porter had committed the criminal offences alleged. The ABC did not contend that the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil. However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted."
The ABC issued a statement this afternoon in which it confirmed no damages would be paid, but it did not give any detail on who was responsible for the legal fees incurred by the parties.
"The ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest, and the article remains online," it said.
"... The ABC stands by our investigative and public interest journalism, which is always pursued in the interests of the Australian community. The ABC stands by Louise Milligan, one of Australia’s foremost and most awarded investigative journalists, and all our journalists in their independent and brave reporting on matters about which Australians have a right to be informed."
Mr Porter, who moved to the Industry, Science and Technology portfolio after launching the defamation proceedings in March, had alleged that the ABC and Milligan defamed him in an article published online on February 26, which detailed a rape allegation against a cabinet minister.
Mr Porter was not named in the article, but claimed he was able to be identified and also alleged the ABC imputed in its article that he had raped the 16-year-old girl in 1988, when he was 17.
In its defence, the ABC said it had not imputed Mr Porter was guilty of rape, but that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting he had committed rape.
