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Josh Massoud loses defamation case against five media outlets
Former sports reporter Josh Massoud has lost a defamation case against five media outlets after they reported that he had been stood down from Channel 7 after threatening to slit a junior colleague’s throat.
Mr Massoud sued Sydney radio station 2GB and Nine Digital – both owned by The Sydney Morning Herald’s publisher, Nine Entertainment Co – Fox Sports Australia, The Daily Telegraph, and radio station KIIS 1065 for defamation in the NSW District Court.
He told the court the stories attributed an incorrect phrase to him, offered no context, and made him sound like a “lunatic”.
On Thursday, Judge Judith Gibson found in favour of all five media defendants, upholding their defences of truth and contextual truth. She said Mr Massoud sued over 16 publications, including six which referred to him as a “disgraced journalist now driving an ice cream truck”.
“The plaintiff has failed on all claims,” Judge Gibson said.
The stories, published in 2018 and 2019, detailed a phone conversation between Mr Massoud and a junior colleague in Maroochydore who had published details of Mr Massoud’s exclusive story on Twitter before the intended 6pm broadcast.
Mr Massoud’s barrister, Tom Molomby, SC, had told the court that his client said to the 18-year-old colleague: “If you weren’t so young and inexperienced, I’d probably come up there and rip your head off and shit down your throat.”
Judge Gibson said it was not disputed that Massoud was dismissed from his job as a result of his conduct on May 1, 2018, when he made a series of phone calls including the “abusive” call to the younger colleague.
“The trial issues relate to the difference between the abusive and threatening sentence the plaintiff made which largely caused his dismissal, and the sentence which the matters complained of state that the plaintiff said,” Judge Gibson said.
She said she does not accept the phrases “slit” and “rip off your head” are sufficiently different for the media organisations’ defence to the defamation to fail.
“It is a distinction without a difference ... both are threats of violence,” she said.
“The additional threat of shitting down the plaintiff’s decapitated throat reinforces that this is a threat, not a promise, and that it is a conditional threat, designed to provoke fear.”
Various Seven staff gave evidence at the trial, including the recipient of the phone call, Jack Warren, and others in the regional newsroom who described him as “broken” and crying inconsolably when the call ended.
One woman, who spoke to Mr Warren straight after the call, recalled him saying Massoud told him: “The only thing that’s stopping me coming up there and slitting your throat and shitting down it is that you’re young”. She said she took specific note of the word “slit” because it’s “an unusual phrase”.
Judge Gibson said this woman’s evidence “paints a vivid picture of an enraged plaintiff shouting abuse and using obscenities”.
Seven’s sports editor, Jim Wilson, told the court that Mr Massoud called him, “blood boiling”, and demanded: “Who the f--- has gone and compromised this, and who’s put it online?”
Deputy news director Emma Dallimore recalled Massoud screaming at her on the phone, saying something like: “This is bullshit, how the f--- does this happen”. She said she had never been spoken to like that before.
Shortly after the call to Mr Warren, and the other heated calls to Seven staff, Mr Massoud was advised he was being called in for an HR meeting and was entitled to bring a lawyer with him because he was “heading for dismissal”.
Judge Gibson said Mr Massoud had previously engaged in conduct amounting to bullying during his time at the Daily Telegraph, including abusing a taxi driver, a female photo desk editor, a senior digital editor, and a female NRL media manager.
She said she does not accept Mr Massoud as a witness of credit, and does not accept his evidence about the conversations he had that evening.
“Nor do I accept his evidence about hurt to feelings and distress arising from the words erroneously attributed to him in the publication ... I consider his real distress was caused by the loss of his job and the publicity accorded to this humiliation,” Judge Gibson said.
Mr Massoud was ordered to pay the media organisations’ costs, which will be determined at a later date.
Josh Massoud loses defamation case against five media outlets
The former Channel 7 sport reporter sued 2GB, Nine Digital, Fox Sports, The Daily Telegraph and KIIS 1065 in the District Court.www.smh.com.au
They will probably hit 6 figures
