Latest news with #defamation
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
GVG Takes Legal Action Through Carter-Ruck to Counter Alleged Disinformation Campaigns
GVG has instructed leading London law firm Carter-Ruck to formally address articles published by Commsrisk. LONDON, June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Voice Group (GVG), a pioneer in regulatory technology and digital governance, has initiated legal action through top-tier law firm Carter-Ruck against Commsrisk. This action follows a series of strategically timed publications that GVG asserts are defamatory and threaten its international partnerships with governments and regulators in Africa, Latin America, and emerging markets worldwide. Misinformation threatens cross-border digital governance Over an extended period, Commsrisk and its editor have published a series of allegations which GVG vehemently denies. These publications, which have surfaced around significant commercial milestones and international tenders involving GVG, have raised concerns about alleged misinformation and its impact on public discourse in the sectors GVG serves. While GVG embraces fair scrutiny of its activity, it believes in upholding the integrity of factual reporting. The company is therefore taking steps to ensure that any public commentary about its operations meets basic standards of accuracy and fairness. "In an era of increasing digital accountability, trust is everything," said James Claude, CEO of GVG. "We welcome open dialogue and critical review of our work. However, we believe that any such dialogue must be rooted in facts. Misinformation doesn't just harm our reputation, it undermines the credibility of the digital infrastructure that countries rely on to fight fraud, increase transparency, and build self-reliant economies. We cannot remain silent when targeted by baseless accusations." GVG's commitment to digital integrity GVG invites all media and stakeholders to consult verified information and encourages responsible journalism that serves the global digital public good. Furthermore, the company reaffirms its commitment to transparency, ethical practices, and remains focused on empowering governments and regulators through trusted, inclusive solutions. GVG is prepared to pursue further legal remedies to ensure full accountability and defend the integrity of cross-border digital governance worldwide. About GVGFounded in 1998 and operating in 11 countries, Global Voice Group delivers ICT and RegTech solutions that empower governments and regulators through data-driven digital transformation. By leveraging Big Data analytics, GVG helps build compliant, inclusive digital ecosystems and turns critical sector data into actionable insights. Logo - View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Global Voice Group Sign in to access your portfolio
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
South Korea's ruling in Plave libel case reshapes avatar rights in the metaverse era
A recent court decision involving defamation against a virtual K-pop group is prompting fresh legal debate in South Korea over the rights of digital personas – with analysts describing it as a significant shift in how the law defines harm, identity and expression in the age of the metaverse. The case centred on Plave, a five-member boy band whose anime-style avatars exist solely in the virtual realm but are voiced and animated by real-life performers using motion-capture technology. Despite their stylised appearance, the court found that online insults directed at the avatars amounted to defamation of the humans behind them – a view legal scholars say reflects a growing recognition of avatars as extensions of individual identity. 'Considering that in today's metaverse era an avatar is not a simple virtual image but a means of self-expression, identity and social communication, defamation against an avatar can constitute an infringement on the actual user's external honour,' wrote Judge Jang Yoo-jin in the May 14 ruling, which ordered the defendant to pay damages to each of the five performers. Rather than marking the close of a dispute, the verdict is widely seen as the start of a broader legal reckoning over how societies define harm – and personhood – in virtual spaces. Fans of virtual K-pop boy band Plave look around a pop-up store in Seoul, South Korea, on March 7. Photo: Reuters The dispute began last July, when a social media user posted a series of mocking videos and derogatory comments targeting Plave, describing them as 'ugly' and ridiculing their performances. Some posts included profanity.
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- News.com.au
Ben Roberts-Smith battles for last chance to overturn defamation loss in Australia's highest court
Ben Roberts-Smith has turned to Australia's highest court in a last-ditch effort to sue Nine Newspapers over war crime allegations. Roberts-Smith claims the Federal Court bolstered its murder conclusions on the assumption that because he didn't challenge evidence, he accepted it as fact. Roberts-Smith filed an application for special leave with the High Court of Australia on Wednesday, just a month after he failed to overturn his loss to Nine Newspapers over war crimes allegations made in a series of stories. Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko in June 2023 dismissed Roberts-Smith's multimillion-dollar lawsuit against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Canberra Times in a landmark judgment. Justice Besanko found that Roberts-Smith was involved in the murder of four unarmed men during his deployment in Afghanistan. The findings were made on the balance of probabilities, which is less than the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt. His appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court was dismissed by Justices Nye Perram, Anna Katzmann and Geoffrey Kennett in May The court found that while Justice Besanko made two errors in his judgment, they were described as 'immaterial'. Roberts-Smith's latest bid to overturn his defamation loss hinges on two grounds, including claims the Federal Court made an error by assuming he accepted facts because he didn't contest evidence. 'The Full Court erred by treating the appellant as affirmatively accepting facts that were not recontested, and using that assumed acceptance to bolster its murder conclusions, thus misconceiving the effect of unchallenged findings on appeal,' the special leave application stated. The other ground argued the Federal Court preferred 'delayed, contradictory and memory-impaired' eyewitness accounts over Australian Defence Force (ADF) operational records. This was in relation to Roberts-Smith's involvement in the murder of two prisoners at a compound called Whiskey 108 in 2009, the murder of a handcuffed shepherd Ali Jan at Darwan in 2012, and Roberts-Smith directing members of the Afghan partner forces to shoot a man following the discovery of a cache of weapons during an operation at Chinartu. The application argues the findings of war crimes couldn't be reached to the requisite standard under the Evidence Act as they relied on 'inconsistent and memory-impaired recollections' from more than a decade after the events and despite 'exculpatory' ADF operational records. ADF records document 'lawful engagements and no executions' and would-be engagements 'consistent with the laws of armed conflict', Roberts-Smith claims. Further, the application claims the records were discounted on 'speculative or flawed grounds', including by treating them as 'no more than repetitions of the applicant's account' or rejecting them on 'asserted inconsistencies that arose only at trial and were not evident at the time of reporting' in the cases of Darwan and Chinartu. Finally, it argued that the findings were reached without the 'criminal-trial safeguards of a jury, prosecutorial disclosure and proof beyond reasonable doubt', and the Evidence Act had been misapplied in regard to the satisfaction of 'facts tantamount to criminal guilt'. Roberts-Smith continues to deny the allegations, last month releasing a statement that said: 'Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant, and I believe one day soon the truth will prevail.'
ABC News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Moira Deeming speaks to journalists while on her way to a party meeting
Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has accused her party colleagues of trying to 'annihilate' her after she sued John Pesutto for defamation.
SBS Australia
11 hours ago
- Business
- SBS Australia
Moira Deeming, John Pesutto urged to 'smell the roses' after party grants bankruptcy bailout
A $1.5 million loan has been granted to former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto, with the fractured party desperate to draw a line under a long-running defamation saga. The Victorian Liberals' administrative committee met on Thursday night and agreed to lend former leader John Pesutto $1.55 million to settle his debt to first-term MP Moira Deeming. The Hawthorn MP was ordered to pay $2.3 million in legal costs to Deeming after the Federal Court found he defamed her by implying she was associated with neo-Nazis. Pesutto, who has already coughed up $315,000 in damages, had only raised about $750,000 through wealthy backers and a GoFundMe campaign. An offer to defer some of the legal bill in exchange for Deeming's guaranteed preselection and Pesutto swearing off trying to return as leader for three years was rebuffed. In a letter to party members on late on Thursday, Victorian Liberal president Philip Davis said the money would be paid directly to Deeming. Pesutto will be required to repay the loan at market-rate interest. Davis said the deal would avert a by-election and allow the Liberals' parliamentary party to focus the issues that matter to the Victorian community. Entering parliament on Thursday morning, Pesutto was upbeat about the committee agreeing to his loan request. "Tonight's an opportunity to square (the issue) off and put it all behind us," he said. Deeming, who was expelled from the party room before being welcomed back in December, was sceptical it would end the infighting that has engulfed the party since March 2023. "I assume that they will continue with their quest to try to annihilate me," the upper house MP said. Deeming said the party could "do what they like" but she would take any support of Pesutto as a "direct rebukement (sic)" of the court judgement. Opposition leader Brad Battin attended Thursday night's meeting but would not reveal to reporters how he planned to vote. Battin urged Deeming and Pesutto to "smell the roses" if either woke up on Friday morning unhappy with the outcome. Time is running out for Battin to unite the Liberals before the next state election in November 2026.
